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Loading speed is of paramount importance for business websites. Slow loading causes high bounce rates, diminished user trust, and has a negative impact on SEO and business metrics. Improving loading speed boosts web based businesses through an SEO lift and an improved user experience, positively impacting site and page retention, conversion, repeat business, social proof and more.

1. Clean it up: Clean websites and coding load faster. Remove outdated content and old or broken links. Delete unwanted plugins, unused tags, and non-essential components in headers. Review and reduce redirects, excess images, unnecessary JavaScript, and any excessive CSS. Avoid embedding CSS or JavaScript code to reduce the amount of HTML code being used which slows loading speed.  Utilizing a minification tool on CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files can help eliminate unnecessary characters in coding such as indentations, which makes code easier on the eyes but adds document bytes which can impact loading speed.

2. Compress and optimize: Split excessively large pages into smaller ones. Review page set-ups to eliminate nonessential components and re-compartmentalize your information. It’s a good opportunity to review web page engagement and replace pages that aren’t driving results with your reorganized content. Ensure CSS and HTML code consistency with the use of the same letter casing, quoting of HTML tag attributes, indication of attributes in a consistent order, and alphabetizing CSS key-value pairs. Use online tools to compress and optimize CSS delivery and review JavaScript placement to ensure that JS attributes are placed at the bottom of your HTML, instead of at the top or within the head tag. Optimize images and remove ones that don’t add value. A few carefully placed quality images will garner better results than a cluttered interface that overwhelms visitors, detracts from messaging, and slows loading speed. Remove irrelevant image coding information such as camera specification data and ensure images contain a URL for indexing and a brief, but accurate, description and title with keywords. Image types such as JPEG, GIF, and PNG utilize different file sizes. Ensure the image type used fits the need of the image.

3. Choose your server wisely:  Your server is not the place to save money; it will cost more in the long-run through diminished traffic flow, high bounce rates, and a negative impact on SEO. Utilize a quality server.

4. Design for speed: Cluttered pages slow loading speed and detract from the purposes of the website. Declutter sidebars and web pages by removing non-essential images, ads, and content. Use analytics to determine the ROI from different web elements such as ads, navigational components, and links. Let hero information and visuals shine by utilizing negative space and a clean interface. Use one or a few quality images over excessive visuals, keep navigational elements focused on priorities, and keep text concise to retain user interest and keep pages uncluttered. A simple and well-designed website will drive greater results in user retention, conversion, and repeat business, than one that is visually overwhelming.

Avatar New York Web Design is an innovating, award-winning web design New York firm dedicated to providing clients with responsive websites that help grow brands and convert visitors to customers. With an expertise in web development, branding, cloud hosting, mobile app development, and CMS and e-commerce solutions, Avatar New York's top tier designers have the ability to create intelligent websites for any type of business.