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Is a Slow Website Costing You Visitors ?

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Video, high-end graphics, and Flash animation create an interactive and attractive website, but these elements increase a website's load time. A website that loads too slowly leads to a poor user experience, which increases bounce rate. Most web pages that load slowly can be tweaked for better performance through code changes. Code changes include external file management and compression. Just these few changes increase the amount of visitors to a website, and it can even increase ranking in Google.

Javascript and CSS

Javascript and CSS are included on almost any website, especially those with interactive elements. Some webmasters include long lines of CSS and Javascript code within the web page. Long blocks of code increase the load time of each web page, and it can lead to errors detected by the user's browser.

Javascript and CSS placed in a separate file and included in an HTML link tag improve loading performance of the content page. Most webmasters include Javascript files at the top of the HTML code. However, placing the Javascript links at the bottom of the web page allows the content to load and display first. This means the user can start reading the content of the page while the Javascript is loading.

Don't link external files excessively. Even though Javascript and CSS code are better in separate files, too many externally linked files in the code can actually harm a web page's performance. For each linked file placed in web page code, the user's browser makes another HTTP request to the server. By placing several linked pages in the code, you expend the user's bandwidth as well as your own server's. Combine Javascript and CSS styles into one file.

Gzip Files

For websites that display high-end graphics and large web page elements, gzip is a standard format that compresses large files. When the user accesses the pages, the browser downloads the compressed files, limiting the amount of bandwidth used. This is beneficial for users with limited slotsduck bandwidth. Some users block large images to reduce the amount of time web pages load. Although it's beneficial for load time, the user has a poor experience, because he is unable to view graphics. Use gzip on files to improve the experience for users with slow Internet connections.

Remove Meta Tags with "No-cache"

Meta tags are used for search engines, and they control some behaviors when the user accesses your web page. The "no-cache" directive tells the browser not to use cached information, so the user's web browser always makes a new call to the server. This is especially problematic for cell phone users. Remove the following meta tags from your web pages to implement caching and speed up your visitor's browsing.

These three small tweaks greatly improve the visitor's browsing speed and lower the chance of losing money due to slow loading times. Just a few small changes to website code speeds up your website, which reduces your pages' bounce rate.