Is Your Website Too Slow?

Are you often getting complaints that your website is down, not displaying properly, or just loading at a snail's pace? Are you even more upset because you just recently had your website "revamped"?

We feel your pain!

I'm going to try my best to break it down for you and although it might get technical along the way, rest assured that if you leave your questions/comments below, I will happily answer them for you.    
 

I don't have a website, but if I do build one, I want to make sure it is wicked fast!

For this scenario, I highly recommend you utilize the services of an experienced website development firm. Not just any old web-development firm, but one with solid credentials. Many web developers can "code" a website and slap it together for you, but very few have an intricate understanding of the various coding languages, frameworks, and how best to utilize them effectively. Try Farin Innovations, Inc. - I'm sure someone over there can help you out ;).
 

I already have a website, but it is so slow we are starting to lose customers & sales!

Sound the alarm! In order to understand why your website is loading so slowly, it is first important to understand all of the variables which work together to create an incredibly speedy website.

Server Design

A huge factor which will help determine how fast your website will load is the server configuration which is currently hosting the website. Are you paying $7/month for website hosting and sharing a single server with a few hundred websites? (GoDaddy) OR Do you have your own dedicated server with the appropriate BANDWIDTH, RAM, and HARDWARE configured?

1) If you are currently on a Shared Hosting plan and paying a nominal monthly fee - consider upgrading to a dedicated server with custom specifications tailored to meet the demands of your web-based application.

2) If you are currently on a Dedicated Server, you'll need to ask yourself the following questions.

a) Are you utilizing memcached or a similar caching API?
b) Have you properly enabled/configured gZip compression?

If the answer to any of the above questions is "No", than you may have a serious problem! If you don't know how to implement the above server optimization techniques, Farin Innovations, Inc offers managed dedicated servers and server optimization services which are GUARANTEED to increase your page loading times!
 

Streamlined Website Design

Your website design should be free of unnecessary images and flash-media content. The key is to get your website to load within 3 seconds or less. Any longer, and you're probably going to lose the attention span of your visitors. At Farin Innovations, we like to design using CSS as the primary language for creating style sheets. We then use Adobe Photoshop to create subtle images and backgrounds that enhance the look and feel of the design while keeping the load times very fast. Utilizing small background images and CSS Sprites can go a long way when it comes to speeding up your website. If you haven't heard of using CSS Sprites to combine/optimize your images, here's a good starting point: Using CSS Sprites to Combine Images

W3 Validated Source Code

You're not going to get anywhere if your website is not properly coded. One of the easiest ways to do a quick-check and see whether or not you have implemented "clean code" on your website, is to use the free W3C Markup Validation Service. Just put your website URL in the box, and press "Check". If your website is utilizing code which is free of bugs and erroneous errors, the results should look like what you see to the right.
 

If you've already done all of the above, or simply have no idea how to implement anything which I've talked about --- leave me a comment below, send us a message, or request a quote and we'll work together to devise a Website Speed Optimization campaign for your company ASAP!