Chapter 3: DECREASING DOWNLOAD TIMES

IMAGE OPTIMIZATION

Download times are critical to web site success. There are many areas that impact file size: Your server's connection to the internet, the amount of HTML text you use, complex scripting, and the size of the images on your page are a few.

The following sites decrease the size, or "optimize" your images for faster downloading capabilities. It is best to do this type of testing before each major launch or web site change. You should also doublecheck your HTML coding for WIDTH & HEIGHT tags on images and tables. These help decrease the impact of download time by bringing up these images one by one as these load to your system.

Image Optimizers

Smart Saver Pro
"Ulead SmartSaver Pro 3.0 is the most powerful Web graphics production tool available today. From image and animation optimization to image slicing, image maps, JavaScript rollovers and table-based graphics composition, it is the ultimate solution for preparing Web images." from Smart Saver Site Free trial. Download only $59.95.

Gif Works
by Media Builder. "Create your own special effects with any GIF -- even animated ones! Resize it, colorize it, optimize it, and jazzercise it -- then save it and take it with you" from the Gif Works Site. It's Free with No Downloads.

GIF Wizard
"GIF Wizard reduces GIFs, JPGs and BMPs up to 90% without sacrificing quality. Crop, resize, rotate, adjust colors and compress in one integrated online editor" from the GIF Wizard Site. Try it free!.

GIF Bot
by Net Mechanic. "Move Into the Fast Lane! If your page doesn't load in 8 seconds, you'll lose 1/3 of your visitors! GIFBot can speed up your site" for the GIF Bot site . Try it Free!

Gif Lube
By Web Site Garage. "Are you losing visitors because your Web page takes too long to load? GIF Lube will decrease your load time quickly and easily by optimizing your graphics." from Gif Lube site

DOWNLOAD TIMES CHECKERS

After you optimize your images, if you haven't already done so, find out how fast each page of your site will download under modem conditions ranging from 14kbps to T1 connections. Web Site Garage Tune Ups
"Load Time Check - reports load time from 14.4K to T1" from Web Site Garage web site Free Trial!

Net Mechanic's Tune Up
"Check your links, HTML, page load time, spelling, and more!" from Net Mechanic's web site . Free Trial!

Site See Submission Service
This Service includes ...evaluating load times and giving suggestions on how to lower them...A full report with copies of the new html are sent to you or your webmaster. from Site See web site Only $29.95. Free trial.

Optiview.com
"You can cut your website download time by 30% to 90% using the OptiView Content Delivery Network and Real Time Optimization." from Optiview.com web site . New product that dynamically resizes your images to meet the circumstances for better download times.

Server Checkers

You should also test your server from time to time to insure it is loading your page quickly using fast backbone connections & is working properly. It is an industry standard that servers be up 99.5% of the time. You should question anything lower than that. You should also question slow download times if you share a server with other web sites. This could mean that the actual server is overloaded.

Net Mechanic Checks your site's server performance levels at various times thoughtout a 24 hour period and during various degrees of usage.

ZDNet Review of Web Raider
Web Raider is suppose to do the same. P> Keynote Test the performance and failure rates of your web site from over 60 locations in 35 cities around the US and the World. Real Time Graphs tell you how your site is doing.

Smart Age $6.95 set up/$6.95 month or 14.95 server performance checks

Host List.com will check out your web host's background. It will tell you what type of connection it has to the internet, what type of server it runs on, and how it performs.

Internet Traffic Report Maps out traffic levels and speeds over the "internet highway", both nationally and internationally.

THE STORE

Download for only $59.95. Free Trial Here!

Always Free!

Small Biz Special: Get 50 pages per month image and download monitoring for $69.95/year.

Try it Free!

GIF LUBE
By Web Site Garage

MAINTENANCE CHECK UPS:

IMAGE OPTIMIZING: If not already done prior to launch, this should be done to each page prior to launch for page optimizing. It should also be done after each major image revision and the each new image added to your site.

DOWNLOAD CHECKS It is important to check the load time of your site on a regular basis to insure your site is running properly. It is suggested that this test be run before launch, after each major change, and at least once quarterly.

SERVER CHECKS ALWAYS check out a new server. Run checks on it periodically to see how fast it downloads within a span of 24 hours, (the services above will run these checks for you.), test it on different days, visit server/host index sites like, Host Index.Com to check on it. Choose credible hosts with a solid reputation. Make sure their connection to the internet "backbone" is solid and they have a 99.5% success rate.