Formatting Tips To Speed Up Your Website - Part 2

One of the most important aspects of your website design is how fast your site loads. Here are a few tips to help speed up your website.

 

Avoid Nested Tables

Many website designers are not big fans of using tables for layout. However, if tables seem necessary (or the easier way to do it), try to avoid nesting. This is because when you place a table inside another table, it takes a lot longer for the browser to work out the spacing since it has to wait to read the entire html and then work out the layout. If at all possible, try using CSS to create the columns on your page.

 

Avoid Full Page Tables for Faster Rendering

If you use tables, try avoiding the whole page being one big table. The browser will not show anything until it has read the whole table. For a faster loading webpage, either try multiple tables (not nested) or having content above the main table to make your content in the first table show up faster. That way your visitors will have something to read while the rest of your page loads. It may not really make you page faster, but it will feel like it to your visitors.

 

Split Up Long Pages - Multiple Short Pages Load Faster

By splitting up long pages into multiple pages you not only make the content show up faster but many people that see a very long scroll bar give up. Remember, people's attention spans are often short as so much information is available at our fingertips. Try breaking your content up into more readable lengths.