Killing a Giant Lion Turtle with your Site Load Time

Entering the new era of websites, Web 2.0, we have a new challenge. What do our users do in the time when the site is loading. I can tell you one thing. My users just blink, and the site loads. What about you? What do your users do?

With the look on your faces right now, I think they go Kill a Giant Lion Turtle.

Seriously, if that is the case then you need some serious help. Well not particularly you, but your website. In this post, I will discuss my experience with the fast loading time of Balkhis getting me alot of new users since the new design has been implemented.

I noticed alot of things since the new site was implemented, one thing was that my IE 6 users were very happy because traffic of IE 6 users increased. The main thing I noticed though was that my Bounce Rate Decreased!!!

The reasons why I figure that is because the site was loading much faster, so my users didn’t close the window because they didn’t get the chance to. Now I actually have stats to compare my Load time:

My Past Design

Site Load Time - 1.24 Seconds
Page Size - 36.12 KB

Source - Enkayblog

New Design

Site Load Time - 0.25 seconds
Page Size - 45.54 KB

Do you see the difference? That is a huge difference. So not only that I decreased the site load time, but I also increase my page size. Want to know how?

1. Reduce Image Size - I realized that in the last design, I was using too many different images. They were optimized to an extent, but I was using too many of those. So I decided to make the design a bit more simpler, and started using the same image multiple times. I also reduced the image size a little bit also. It did decrease some what of the quality, but I can say it is barely noticeable. (Use GIMP, or Photoshop to play around with settings)
2. Optimize your CSS File - If you are using a wordpress blog, then you are using a CSS File. My suggestion is that you go in that file, and start making some editions. Get rids of extra classes and ids that have the same function. Get rid of extra lines and spaces. Because the smaller your file is, the better your site load time is.
3. Avoid External Javascripts - Are you using external javascripts on your site? If so find a different way to display that content because it slows your site down. Remember, I wrote about Kontera and site load time issues. Because they have external javascripts. One of the reasons, why I gave up on entrecard as well. A long article will be coming up regarding that as well. If you are using a peel away ad, use it from your own server. Not Adtoll’s because that also slows your site load time.
4. Optimize your Blog Page - Are you one of those who are displaying 15 blog posts on one page. Well if you are then I would recommend changing it. One thing is because the more images you use in those posts, the slower your site will be. Second, it will decrease your page views. So display around 5 - 10 posts on your blog page. Not any more than that. You will see a better site load time, and increase in page views as well.
5. Use WP-Super-Cache - Alot of bloggers underestimate the power of WP-Super Cache. That is one of the essentials for wordpress because it decreases your load time by a whole heck of alot. It simply lets your users cache your site, so it loads up quicker.

Now if you are still going slow, then it is not you it is your web host. I will say try out one of the better hosts. Look at my sidebar ad, to see which one I support the most

Now by following the things, I described above, I think you should be able to easily decrease your load time. Believe it or not, you will see a decrease in your bounce rate, and an increase in readers. Personally, I would prefer other blogs to load fast as well because I visit too many of them, and I don’t want to wait for the sites to load, so I can comment faster and save time because I understand that to most people, time is money.

So don’t let your users kill a Giant Lion Turtle while waiting for your site to load. Follow these tips and decrease your load time.