The Importance of Download Speed

Google includes download speed in its ranking system - the faster websites get the jump on the slower ones.

Research shows that visitors' fingers start to move over the mouse button after 8.6 seconds of loading a web page. If you have broadband, don't assume your visitors have it. Dialup times are typically three times those of DSL speeds. If your home page takes 45 seconds to load, you will lose 50% of your visitors - and over 60 seconds loses you another 25%.

Keep graphics to a minimum - every element on every page has to earn it's place - never forget it. Don't add gratuitous graphics or gizmos, particularly on the home page.

Headers are often the worst offenders - huge lumps of functionless eye candy occupying fully half of the viewable area. Keep the headers small and functional.

We design website headers to download within 3 seconds and include such things as searchable text, email links etc. Keep the size of photos small if you have many.

Flash - love it or hate it. It is used 99% of the time to add razzle dazzle without performing any useful function. It is also a drag on page load times. Clients love it until they see their website traffic plummeting. Their visitors may love it too - for the first page - but it soon becomes irritating and the last thing you need is an irritated visitor.

A Short Website Content Tutorial

'Content is King' - a cliché, but it is the entire reason for the website. Razzle dazzle has a short shelf life.

Do you spend only a few seconds on a web page? Do you get frustrated when a web page takes time to download? Of course you do - so why would you expect the visitors to your own website to be any different? They want to know:

• Who you are;
• What you do;
• Where you are;
• How much it costs (maybe);
• What can I do on this website? . . .

. . . in short order on the home page.

Decide who your target audience is and write for that audience. Eliminate any verbose passages, remove unnecessary adjectives. On the home page, state in clear simple English what it is you do and make sure to include plenty of keyphrases (click here for more on search optimization).

The internal pages of your website offer more latitude but never add more text than you require to get your message across.

Keep the tone informal - your website is not a contract. Use 'we' and 'you' whenever possible, particularly if you are in the hospitality trade. If you are in a specialist area, think of including a glossary - don't include acronyms and jargon in the website if there is a chance that the readers will not understand it.

A typical business website will have the following basic structure:

• Home page with a simple but comprehensive description of your products or services. The content has to be very carefully thought out for this page.
• About page with details about the business, where it is, length of operation.
• Products/Services pages.
• Latest News page with topical items.
• Contact page with form.

We will be happy to answer any queries in plain plain English!

Appearance

'A picture tells a thousand words' - very true. A poor picture will tell visitors to expect a shoddy website - content an' all. Irrelevant and unnecessary pictures slow the page down and confuse visitors. Passé graphics like rotating email icons tell visitors you haven't attended to your website in at least five years. Huge, slow graphics tell visitors you don't care they are on a dialup.

Warthog websites use only graphics that are relevant and optimized for speed.

A website design composed solely of vivid colours tells visitors that you have no idea how to construct a proper palette. We like to use subtle colours that are easy on the eye so we can use small amounts of vivid colour to draw the visitor's eye to items of interest.

Many local websites use avant garde colour combinations that may be attractive but pay no attention to visitors who may be old with defective eyesight or those that may be colour blind.

Warthog websites use (normally) a restrained palette based on the company logo which takes into account the audience that is expected to visit the website.

Navigation

Navigation goes with page layout and the website palette to ensure that the website delivers a 'pleasurable visitor experience'. A poor navigation scheme, even with a website of a few pages can confuse and frustrate visitors and they won't return.

Navigation should allow search engines to follow the links to index the entire website.

Warthog uses pure HTML that is not only very fast and cross browser compliant but also lets visitors know where they have been and where they have yet to go. We combine this with cascading style sheets to create complex drop down-fold out menus if necessary.

Menus may be placed on the left, on the right or across the page top - which we find preferable. However, for a large menu, the right side of the page is logical. We still see most websites with left menus that prevent the full width of the content being printed. Hard copy then consists of the entire menu but half the valuable page content.

Monitoring your Website

Most website owners, even those who rely on their websites for business have no idea how many visitors they have to their websites, their most popular pages, where their visitors came from - or very importantly - what search terms visitors used to find them and therefore what search terms they should think about reinforcing. Amongst other things, your stats will tell you:

• Number of visitors
• Number of visitors that visited more than once
• Where they came from
• Most popular and least popular pages
• Which page most visitors entered the site at
• Search words and phrases used to find you
• ... and many more

Websites hosted by Warthog come with a browser based 'Control Panel' that enables website owners to monitor their websites. They can see the website traffic, their disc usage, set up emails. The popular Cpanel comes with dozens of tools and the ability to install many scripts directly from the server.

Website owners should look at their website traffic every couple of months. They should also test their search positioning using commonly used search terms.

If the ranking has dropped, it may be a glitch with the search engine, the host or the competition has wised up. Although there will be a standard fluctuation over time, any serious and prolonged drop needs to be remedied.

Our website hosting plan will alert you to significant changes to your website's ranking.