One of the principles of usability is fast downloading of a web page. Here’s a neat tool that helps to check web page download time. This will help your website from search engine optimization perspective as well.

Tips for reducing download time for a web page:

• Use div’s rather than tables for layout.
• Use XHTML rather than HTML.
• Separate content from presentation completely by using external StyleSheet.
• Do not add inline styles or scripts. All JavaScript should be in external file.
• Optimize the size of images. Make sure that you use GIF images or JPEG images appropriately depending upon the file size and required resolution.
• Keep the length of the page not too long. This will help reduce the size of the page and is user-friendly as the visitor doesn’t have to scroll too much.
• Optimize the size of all multimedia files such as video, audio and flash.
• Do not use frames.
• Make sure your hosting server can provide required bandwidth for your website.
• Note that adding advertisements on your web page usually increases the download time.

Related Articles:

• Flash Detection JavaScript
• Validating HTML/XHTML
• Making FireFox Faster
• Web Usability - Part of Search Engine Optimization

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