Download Speed.

Do you want your visitors to your website to stay a while? Then optimise your pages so they load quickly. Don't overwork the Stop button on their browser!

Loading 64kB of data by modem:
Modem SpeedEstimated Time
14,400 bps45 seconds
28,800 bps23 seconds
33,600 bps19 seconds
56,000 bps12 seconds

There are a number of things you can do to improve loading speed. The most important of these us to always try and keep the total size of files to load on any page below 64kB.

The nominal modem speed is not the only factor - text loads more quickly than graphics (due to compression) and overall network speed will also have a bearing on download time.

How to speed up your website:

  1. Text only loads very fast
  2. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
  3. Strip files of unnecessary attributes;
  4. If you use graphics, minimise the file size
  5. Re-use graphics where possible;
  6. If you use tables, do not make them too complex.
  7. Java Applets and anything that requires plug-ins will increase download time.

If there is sufficient demand, we will provide separate pages to further explain for each of these 7 subjects.