Google launched a new tool today that will be of interest to UX geeks – Page Speed. It is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that produces immediate suggestions on how you can supercharge your web pages to improve their speed. The tool is very similar to Yahoo’s YSlow which is also Firebug addon.
Page Load is an important element of user experience and “SEO”. We all know Big G loves fast loading websites and will rank them higher in the SERPS. This tool is definitly worth checking out to get some extra ideas on how to improve your speed (apart from better web hosting).
A few tips for faster loading websites from past experience….
- Use CDN’s (Content Delivery Networks) for user generated content, media files, js frameworks etc.
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests
- Put CSS at the top of your document
- Combine Multiple CSS files into One
- Gzip Compress all your external files (can reduce upto 70% of response size – big win).
I recommend downloading both Page Speed & YSlow to any serious web entrepreneur – every second counts….
Fast response times foster higher flow states (Skadberg & Kimmel
2004), higher conversion rates (Akamai 2007), higher perceived
trustworthiness (Nielsen 1999) – Andrew King.