Research shows that more than 65% of the netizens don’t like a blog that takes forever to download. In today’s busy lifestyle, no one would like to waste their precious time to wait for your blog to download. As a rule of thumb, your blog should at least download within the next 12 seconds once it has been accessed. Otherwise, you’re missing a huge amount of traffic and you have just deprived your blog of repeated visits.

Simple Tips For a Faster Downloading Blog, faster blog download, speed up your blog's downloading time

Like I’ve said before, traffic is the lifeblood of most blogs. Traffic enables bloggers to successfully monetize their blogs. Simply put, the higher the traffic your blog gets the higher the potential revenue is. It is therefore crucial that you make sure your blog downloads fast to avoid lossing traffic and to get the most benefit out of it. Here are some simple tips for a faster downloading blog.

Tips For a Faster Downloading Blog

Optimize and Go Easy On Images

While it is true that images spice up your blog, it is also true that it makes downloading it really slow. There are a few things you can do to optimize the use of images without compromising the speed of your blog.

  • Use image formats such as PNG, JPG and GIF. When using software such as Adobe Photoshop, always use the “Save for web” image quality.
  • Alternatively, you can use an image optimizer. An image optimizer allows you to lessen the size of the image sometimes up to 50%. This means a faster downloading image. There are plenty of free online image optimizers you can use. Here are some of my recommendations: Dynamic Drive, Image Reducer, Net Mechanic and Spin Wave.
  • Make sure to use the ‘Height’ and ‘Width’ tags in images. Using the height and width tags on images allows browsers to figure out the dimensions of an image before it is downloaded. Without the ‘height’ and ‘width’ tags, the browser will have to figure out the height and width of the image which then slows down the downloading process.
  • Lastly, host your images using image host sites like Flickr, Picture Trail, Image Shack or Photo Bucket. Doing this will greatly reduce the bandwidth used by your server. Image hosts also makes your blog faster as image upload sites have a better downloading speed.

    • Avoid Using Tables. Use CSS Instead and Don’t Forget to Optimize your CSS.If you are still using HTML codes to create tables and design your blog, you’re depriving it of a faster downloading time. Tables normally slow down your blog. A better alternative to tables is to use CSS. Using CSS will dramatically speed up your blog’s download time up to 30% or more.To further improve your blog’s speed, optimize your CSS by removing unnecessary code declarations and whitespaces or by shortening the CSS codes whenever possible. Fortunately, there are online websites that provide free CSS optimization for those who are less knowledgeable of CSS. Here are some websites that I recommend: CSS Optimizer, Clean CSS and Style Sheet Optimizer.

    Go Easy on Scripts and Adverts

    Bloggers, especially the new ones are obsessed with their blog’s design and monetization. Oftentimes, they’d overload their blog with fancy flashes and adverts that use javascripts. Least do they know that doing this compromises the downloading speed of their blog. Flashes also cause browsers to freeze annonying your visitors, the least thing you want your visitor to feel about your blog.

    The use of javascript is unavoidable especially if you’re monetizing your blog but you should make sure to use it in moderation. Like CSS, you can also optimize your Javascript to make it run faster on your blog. Free Javascript Optimizer is websites that offers javascript optimization.

    Use Slash (/) on your Links

    Another simple tip for a faster downloading blog is to use slash (/) on your links.

    Instead of using this link to link to Blogging Mix: “http://www.bloggingmix.com” optimize the link by putting a slash at the end of the URL: “http://www.bloggingmix.com/“.

    Limit the Number of Post on your Home Page

    Your home page is usually the first landing page of your visitors. For Blogs, minimizing the number of posts shown will somehow speed up your blog. You can do this through your dashboards. For Blogging Mix, I’ve decided to show 5 of my most current posts.

    There you have it. Some really simple tips you can do to make your blog download faster. If you would like to add something on the list, you’re more than welcome to leave it throught comment. Links on the comments here at Blogging Mix are made ‘DoFollow’ so you get a link juice for leaving your thoughts. FYI, all comments are moderated so SPAMS will be deleted.

    Thank you for your time!

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