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The Client Side
The client side consists of the end user's computer, internet adapter (i.e.
modem), web browser and connection to the Internet. You can't influence the
quality and speed of the user's Internet connection, but you can lower the
time that it takes for your pages to load. Spend a little time thinking
about your page layout, and ask these questions:
How many simultaneous colors are you using? Reduce the number of colors as
much as possible. A 24-bit image looks great, but will cause your images to
be much larger than if you dither your graphics down to 8-bits of color 256
simultaneous colors.
Are you using the most efficient format for each image? JPEG is typically
good for photographs and other images, while GIF is well suited to less
complex images like logos and line art. Determine which format produces the
smallest file size for each image on your page. Are you using graphics where
text would suffice? Consider varying the size and color of text using HTML
tags instead of creating your copy with graphics.
Do you need so many images? People often create pages with many unnecessary
images. This can result in a 'busy' look, which makes it hard to read. Just
as importantly, it greatly increases the time it takes to load the page.
Evaluate each image based on its contribution ('How important is this
image?') vs. its cost ('How large is this image?').
The Server Side
The server side consists of the hardware, software and Internet
connection of the machine serving (hosting) your site. You can exercise a
great deal of control over this aspect of performance-by choosing a good Web
presence provider. It is important to consider many points when evaluating a
Web hosting service.
The speed of their Internet connection. The size of the average Web
page continues to increase. Large graphics and multimedia files can quickly
saturate an Internet link, so it is very important that your provider have a
sufficiently large pipe to the net. The minimum size connection to consider
would be a T1 line (1.544 Mb/s), but this does not give your provider much
room to grow. Keep in mind that it's not just your site that is being
hosted, but many others as well. It is not difficult for a single 'popular'
site to overwhelm the capabilities of a T1. Depending on the provider's
size, a better choice would be to find one with a T3 line (44.736 Mb/s).
This will ensure that they will not be running out of bandwidth at peak
traffic times.
The underlying transport of the connection. Setting up an Internet
link can be a very expensive proposition. Web presence providers often cut
corners and use an inexpensive frame relay network, or other public type of
network, for their 'local-loop'. This means that your data is sharing
communication lines with many other users before it ever gets to the
Internet. It is not unlikely to experience packet loss due to this type of
connection. Make sure that your provider is connected to the net via a
dedicated circuit for their local loop.
Number of hops to the backbone. Traffic on the Internet consists of
data packets being transmitted from one router to the next before eventually
reaching its destination. It is not unusual for a packet to be handled by 20
or more routers before it ends up where it is destined. Each hand-off from
one router to another is called a 'hop' and it has a performance cost. To
reduce the number of hops choose a provider that is as close as possible to
the backbone, the highest bandwidth routes that carry most of the Internet's
traffic. Providers directly connected (1 hop) to the backbone typically
outperform those who are connected further down stream (multiple hops). Be
sure to ask exactly how many hops away from the backbone your provider is
connected.
[Marketing Strategies] | [Web Search] | [Web Performance] | [Technical Information]
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Mission: Create a real estate listings website
MVC designed and implemented an elegant design with outstanding functionality. All of the listings information and content data are managed via a database and administrators area on the web site. The customers has control over all aspects of the site including featured listings, slideshows, video tours and more.
We also integrated an MLS solution such that you will never know that you are viewing information on another site, thus keeping the visitor at the customer's web site and increasing the chances of a property sale.
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