Web Content Thursday: If You’re Losing Readers The Cause Might Not Be Your Writing
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It just might be your page’s load time.
The other day I went to a blog that I read frequently and was disappointed to find that it took over three minutes for the page to paint on my screen.
Yikes!!!
If I had not REALLY wanted to read what that blogger had to say, I would have left the site. As it was, I checked my e-mail, made a note to myself, and generally found myself getting a little irritated while I waited.
No matter how good your writing is if your page loads too slowly your readers and potential readers aren’t going to wait. (Remember, thirty seconds …)
There are a lot of things that can slow your page load time down. Some of these things include:
- Graphics
- Ads
- Embedded YouTube(TM) videos
- Page Design
Now, we need all of these things in our blogs. (Well, not really … but, we really do want them.) So the trick is to incorporate them wisely.
If you’re like me, you may not really know how to speed up your page load time, without research. Fortunately, I’ve started the research for us. Here’s a great list of resources to help you speed up your site:
- From Daily Blog Tips, 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site
- From Tips for New Bloggers, Faster Web Page Load Time
- From Blogging Tips, Decrease Your Page Load Time - Save Traffic
What are your tips for speeding up your blog?
Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved
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About the Author: I am a successful freelance writer with 20 years of copy writing experience. I am available for consulting, business writing, copy writing, editing, technical writing, and web content writing. In addition, I have written an ebook, 
Robert Hruzek | Dec 20, 2007 | Reply
Laura, great reminder! I’ve been noticing lately my page loads sometimes slow up. When I check the bottom of the screen there, the culprit turn out to be the ClustrMap thingie over on the right that displays where folks are logging in from around the world. Nice graphic, but not worth the wait if too long; so I’m afraid it’s about to get the axe!
Hope Wilbanks | Dec 20, 2007 | Reply
You are right on with this post, Laura! This was one of the biggest reasons why I just revamped my blog. I love including graphics and videos, but when you add those to the posts, on top of widgets, ads, etc. in the sidebar your blog can really get bogged down fast. Great tips!
Laura | Dec 21, 2007 | Reply
Hi Robert and Hope!
I think this is something that we all need help with, myself included.
Robert’s description of a slow-loading graphic is so true. There are a lot of cool widgets out there that do neat things … until you take into consideration how much they are slowing your site down.
Chris | Dec 21, 2007 | Reply
Great stuff Laura. Thanks. I’m going to keep this in mind. I have so many widgets on my page and so much javascript and such much white space in my code and so many posts on my main page and photos and video and . . . and it’s just going to get worse, I’m sure. I’m violating every rule, but some how the website speed test I found at one of your links said I’m loading between .4 and .75 seconds and the Firefox plugin I added says I’m okay too. Phew!
Laura | Dec 26, 2007 | Reply
Thanks Chris! I’m glad that the material helped you.
Jeanne Dininni | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
Laura,
Thanks for these great resources for decreasing page-load time!
Jeanne