Website Optimisation: It's Not Just Search Engine Optimisation
Website optimisation covers a lot of things about your website, not just the search engine optimisation side of it. Here are some ideas to take into account.
Website optimisation ideas
Make sure that any images you use are optimised not only for search engines (meaningful image names and alt tags) but also for humans. That means that you have to be careful about the physical file size of the images you're using. Even in these days of fast internet access, a large image takes a long while to download and will adversely affect your website optimisation.
Talking of images, it pays to add in the width and height attributes to your images. That way, the site visitor's web browser can leave space for the image rather than adjusting the page once the image has fully loaded.
CSS files are a great way to handle the visual side of site layout but they also need to be taken into account with your website optimisation. CSS files have to be loaded in the same way as any other part of your website. Trimming out unneeded spaces may seem excessive but you'd be surprised how much space that will save.
Changing the names of the different sections in your CSS files will save even more space, so long as you can remember what the cut-down names stand for.
Cut out carriage returns to save more file size. Web browsers generally don't care about this, although it's worth checking your page still looks OK in various browsers, and your site visitors will notice the speedier loading time.
If you want to see this taken to its most extreme, check out Google's home page which has the style sheet built in (to save loading another page) and carriage return characters are kept to a minimum.
Once you've got your file sizes cut down, the next stage of website optimisation is to look at the visitor experience.
Your website, if it's truly optimised, should be sleek and easy to use.
Menus should be named with obvious names, not trade jargon.
They should also work without needing trigger precision from the visitors mouse. Remember that not everyone who visits your website will be using a mouse. They may be using the pad on their laptop or their fingertip on their mobile phone.
Speaking of mobile phone users, if you get a large number of visitors using mobile phones then make sure that your website optimisation includes optimising your site for phone users.
Website optimisation ideas
Make sure that any images you use are optimised not only for search engines (meaningful image names and alt tags) but also for humans. That means that you have to be careful about the physical file size of the images you're using. Even in these days of fast internet access, a large image takes a long while to download and will adversely affect your website optimisation.
Talking of images, it pays to add in the width and height attributes to your images. That way, the site visitor's web browser can leave space for the image rather than adjusting the page once the image has fully loaded.
CSS files are a great way to handle the visual side of site layout but they also need to be taken into account with your website optimisation. CSS files have to be loaded in the same way as any other part of your website. Trimming out unneeded spaces may seem excessive but you'd be surprised how much space that will save.
Changing the names of the different sections in your CSS files will save even more space, so long as you can remember what the cut-down names stand for.
Cut out carriage returns to save more file size. Web browsers generally don't care about this, although it's worth checking your page still looks OK in various browsers, and your site visitors will notice the speedier loading time.
If you want to see this taken to its most extreme, check out Google's home page which has the style sheet built in (to save loading another page) and carriage return characters are kept to a minimum.
Once you've got your file sizes cut down, the next stage of website optimisation is to look at the visitor experience.
Your website, if it's truly optimised, should be sleek and easy to use.
Menus should be named with obvious names, not trade jargon.
They should also work without needing trigger precision from the visitors mouse. Remember that not everyone who visits your website will be using a mouse. They may be using the pad on their laptop or their fingertip on their mobile phone.
Speaking of mobile phone users, if you get a large number of visitors using mobile phones then make sure that your website optimisation includes optimising your site for phone users.
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