Time is of the essence in the modern world, so it should come as no surprise that life moves much faster online as people have less time to spare when they’re browsing the web. Thanks to a fast-paced lifestyle that has become the norm for digitally-oriented lifestyles and occupations, users don’t have any more time to wait for anything—especially when they’re trying to find what they need on a website.
Whether you’re a business, an e-commerce platform, an informative page, or any other type of website, it’s important to note that the design that you’re using for your website must completely satisfy users’ demands. As competition becomes more stiff for all niches online, the concept of running out of time is something website developers have to consider, especially because users have a wide range of options on the web that you’ll have to compete with.
What you need to worry about when running a website
Out of all the things you have to worry about when running a website, one of the most important things you should consider is that most users don’t want to wait for a website to load. They just move on to the next one in the hopes that they won’t have to waste another 10 to 15 seconds. Although you might think that your website is worth the wait, users might think otherwise, and they probably won’t come back because they don’t want to give you another chance to waste their time.
In order to stand out in the hyper-competitive landscape online, you’ll have to make sure that the website you build for your business, cause, company, or personal use has to be as quick as possible when it comes to loading time. Users grow more and more impatient every day and have equally-short attention spans to match, so loading time is something you must consider when putting your website together.
Essential web design tips for faster loading speeds
Ready to significantly reduce website loading speeds to rake in even more visitors and keep them around for a long time? Here are a few professional web design tips to take into consideration when putting your website together so it will finish loading faster:
1. Limit the use of Flash as much as possible
Although it’s not exactly known for functionality or practicality, Flash is a website add-on that may look amazing at first, but it will actually make things worse for your website if you overdo it. While it may benefit your web design in some ways, you’ll have to cut back on the use of Flash, as it can severely increase your site’s download time. That will cause its visitors to leave out of frustration and never come back.
2. Compress your website’s images
While they may seem harmless, images may actually cause your site to load slowly despite their low file sizes. You may not realise it while you’re uploading pictures to your website, but you can expect your website loading time to slow down drastically the more pictures you add. To make a website load faster, you’ll have to compress your images before uploading them to your website to cut down on their file size and save space.
3. Keep your page sizes to 30KB or less
The unspoken rule of fast-loading web design is that you should keep your page size as low as possible to make things much faster when a visitor stumbles across your website. Less is more in professional web design, so take steps to reduce your page size as much as possible without having to sacrifice essential content.
4. Make the move to CSS
Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) over the traditional table layout can make a huge difference in the size and loading time of your website. Most web designers are making the move to CSS because it’s built with a dual purpose of making things look great while shaving off valuable seconds when it comes to the download time.
If you’re looking for a website designer in Birmingham, get in touch today for a free consultation!
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