Hello dear friends. Someone asked me on a recent post for tips on helping blogs to load faster. So, here is a re-posting of a post I did a while ago:
Does your blog/site seem to take forever to load? Some browsers tend to load slower than others. That we cannot control. One thing that slows down load time that we can help is the pixel size and weight of images. To help your blog load faster, consider optimizing your images. It is very easy to do this. Some images that should be optimized include:
● blog background image and header
● post images
● post signature and divider
● sidebar images
Simply go to Website Planet.com and follow the easy instructions. There are no programs to download, no registering, no fees, and the site is https secure as being safe. This will not reduce the dimensions of your images, only their "weight". We all tend to love and have many images on blogs, so this is one way to solve the issue without removing some of our images. Please continue reading.
About images... a PNG file is transparent. This is needed only if you need a transparent background on an image so the image won't have a white "box" around it against a blog with a colored content area (where the posts are written and the sidebar area). The blog's main background image (behind the whole blog) does not usually need to be transparent, so having it saved as a JPG will greatly reduce its "weight" thus load time.
Consider removing or not showing the following items that slow down a blog/site:
● animated (moving) images and/or text
● background music
● icons and thumbnails in the Blog List
● excessive and/or moving ads
● additional images (thus weight) such as blog post dividers, sidebar elements images. etc...
If you display 25 or less blogs in your Blog List (changeable in Layout), this makes the page shorter thus faster loading. Displaying 8 or less posts on your blog will also help the speed. This is also changeable in Layout. Having to scroll for what seems like forever down a blog/site is somewhat time-consuming.
If you are still using the Old Blogger Interface (old Minima template, for example) and have not removed your current background code html gadget (in Layout) before adding a new one, this will cause your blog to load slowly because both backgrounds are loading (the new on top of the old background). Be sure to have only one background that is preferably optimized. "Upgrading" to the New Blogger Interface is much easier to work with. There the background is not uploaded via a html gadget, like in the Old Blogger Interface. *CHANGING TO THE NEW INTERFACE WILL REDUCE OR ELIMIMATE MANY PROBLEMS*
ALWAYS BE CAREFUL WHEN EDITING HTML! Another good reason to go ahead and make the change to the new Blogger interface.
Be sure to save a copy of your current template before you change your blog design, always. Do this in: Template, then up on the top right is a box that says, "Backup/Restore". Backup (Save) your template to your computer. It will go to either Downloads or Pictures. Important: do not open that file to see it or try to change the file's name, as this will corrupt the file and you then cannot use it!
Check your blog/site's page load speed. There are several sites that will allow you to test for free, such as: Pingdom. Around 5 seconds or less is typically considered to be fast. No one likes to wait forever while a blog/site loads.
*I receive no compensation or endorsement for these opinions. I am not a computer professional*
Blessings, Danice G.
2 comments:
Wow! The last one about multiple backgrounds loading is helpful! I have to check mine, but I notice other sites do that and always wondered! This whole post was extremely helpful. I can see a few things I can improve! Thank you, dear!
Love and hugs,
Heather
Thank you!
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