Web Design and eBusiness Marketing Tip # 7

By Kamau Austin
Publisher and Editor Einfonews

"Avoid Turning Off Your Customers with Slow Download Speeds"

Since the average web surfer will, only wait 8 seconds for your web page to download (or appear in their browser) it is important to have small file sizes on your web pages so, they download quickly. Most usability experts (persons who study how people like to use the web, and what features on your web site help users become more efficient), suggest files sizes of 25 KB - 50 KB. This is very hard to achieve since, the average JPEG picture could easily be 10-15 KB by itself. This would not take into account other page elements like text, links, and animation. A typical Flash animation could run 100-200 KBs embedded into a web page.

Although broadband (high speed Internet access with cable, DSL, and wireless), has made tremendous strides in market penetration, obtaining critical mass at 33% of Internet users, nevertheless nearly 67% of web users still have slow dial up connections. Therefore, I would suggest obtaining web designers that know how to optimize photos extremely well, use movie clips in Flash to keep animation file size to a minimum, don't use music files unless absolutely necessary, and use thumbnails pictures - linked to larger pictures, on e commerce sites (where necessary).

Furthermore, if you use animation, only use: one per page. Find a web designer that understands how to design a graphical interface in one file, that the whole site will use so, the interface will be cached (stored in the Browsers memory). This is important because, as users surf from page to page the interface only has to be downloaded once -- speeding up surfing on the site. Make sure you have them make all your pages under 100 KB -- no exceptions. If you need someone to help you develop a fast loading user friendly site, that also scores well in search engine ranking, contact me (Kamau Austin) Toll Free at: 866-324-9669