Does Your HOME Page Load Quickly?
December 28, 2011
Have you ever tested how long it takes to load your website or blog? The HOME page of your website should load quickly to satisfy viewers. If it takes too long, readers may not wait!
A super simple, easy test for upload speed is pingdom.com (no registration required, thank goodness).
Factors that can influence load time are the size of images, number of images, podcasts, and videos. Advertisements and widgets that require contact with another site also delay the upload speed.
Sure, different pages of your website may load at different speeds. Viewers may consider waiting for a video or slide presentation to upload AFTER they have discovered that your website has something worth waiting for. But your HOME page is their first introduction. It needs to make a quick impression without being burdened with heavy content.
Use your HOME page for the initial introduction only and let the viewer click through on the content that they wish to pursue.
This is a consideration for ongoing improvements. It was brought to mind because I've noticed that ASK Harriete is taking longer to load. I've been including a lot more images that are much larger as an experiment, and this is influencing how long it takes to upload. In the future, I need to make the images smaller and compress them a little more for a speedier upload.
Check your website and blog to see how long it takes to upload. Maybe people are leaving your website before they have a chance to view your work.
This post was updated on February 17, 2022.