The number of web sites is steadily growing on the net. A web site has the potential to reach users from every part of the world. So it has to be kept in mind whether the users can easily access them or having trouble with the web pages. The speed of Internet connection is not same all over the world. Some uses the high speed net while others use slow speed broadband and dial up connections. Since the number of web sites is steadily increasing the competition is also getting tougher. The average time a user spends on a web page is also decreasing with so many sites.

In this situation it is better to design a web site that can be accessed fast and with ease. Reducing the web site load time is one of the basic solutions if you want visitor retention on your web pages. Most of the visitors lack patience and they will switch to a different site if your site takes too long to load.

Here are some of the basic guidelines to reduce the load time of your web site:

Reduce the use of graphics:

First of all try to reduce the graphics you are going to use on the web pages. It is always advisable to use optimized images. You can edit it with Photoshop. GIF, PNG and JPEG are some of the popularly used image formats on web. By saving the images of the site in its proper format, page load time can be reduced.

Heavy images should be avoided on the web pages. If you are using heavy images on your site, you can pre-load some of them. Flash images on a site are to be used with prudence. If you utilize them then it is better to optimize them.

The width and height of the images are to be mentioned while inserting the graphics in HTML. By this specific areas are reserved by the browsers for the images to be used. While a user accesses the page, the rest of the page will continue to load and it will reduce the loading time of the site.

Reduce the codes:

Reducing the code is another effective way to lessen the web site load time. Many times empty and redundant tags get inserted in the code and these should be carefully checked and removed from the web pages. A clean coding will definitely reduce the loading time. If you have to use Javascript then they can be merged into a single file. The compression of files will help the pages to open faster.

It is always advisable to use DIV tags and CSS for web designing. By using these you can avoid inserting tables and it will help in fast loading of web pages. Use of CSS makes the web design clean and compact. It will also reduce the web site loading time. Use of shorthand CSS is even better for web design and to reduce load time.

For faster loading of web pages some other things should also be kept in mind; like:

• Host your web site on a high-end server for better result.
• Avoid using music files as far as possible. You can use compressed music files if it is very necessary.
• You can put your content on one server and the database on another. It will make your site faster and it is also secure to do that.
• You can use PHP, I frames, database etc less in number, which will affect the load time.
• Use a slash at the end of the domain name of your site, which will indicate that it is a directory page and server will take less time working on the site.

While designing your web pages, if you keep in mind the above-mentioned tips then you will be able to reduce the load time for your web site for sure.