For many business the process of designing a website can involve a lot of emphasis being placed on the aesthetics and the interface, which are undeniably important areas that should be given a good deal of attention.
Having a site that looks the part and is easy to navigate is not enough on its own, however. The site must also load quickly on a range of devices, from desktop PCs with fibre optic connections to mobile devices with older 3G capabilities.
You may think that a lot of the browsing experience is down to elements that are out of the hands of site designers and webmasters, which is why optimisation attempts by the companies behind browsers are ongoing, especially in a mobile-dominated era.
Joining forces with an expert on the topic of web design can be an effective way to optimise load speeds, with the Bournemouth web designer team at Expect Best helping business clients to achieve improved performance. Speed is so important to some people that there are services dedicated to making access to news articles instant.
There are some other factors to think about if you want to cater to the two-thirds of smartphone users who believe that if a page takes more than four seconds to load, it is not worth visiting.
Pull out plug-ins
Plug-ins certainly have their place in web design but it is important to remember that each one will place an additional load on browsers and connections, meaning that you should keep them to a minimum to make your site as quick and nimble as possible.
Embrace image compression techniques
Even in a mobile world, images generate more engagement and interest than plain text; therefore, you should not eliminate pictures from your site altogether. What you should do is make sure that the files are optimised to use as little bandwidth as possible, which is where compression comes into the mix.
A lot of this is down to picking the right file format for images, allowing quality to be retained even as compression is applied. PNGs are generally chosen for images such as logos and graphics, where colours are flat and consistent, whereas JPEGs do a better job of translating photographs effectively in a web-based environment without taking up too much space.