I have been receiving complaints that the new site design is slow. Having tested it on all modern browsers, and having found no such issues, I wondered where to start. Some Googling and poking around later, I came up with the following tips that I thought I’d pay forward.
1. Site Performance Webmaster Tools on Google Labs. This tool shows you how your site fares compared to others. It also offers specific steps to make your site faster.
2. Firebug, a web development add-on for Firefox. It is very cool, but for this specific need, it will allow you to install:
2a. Page Speed, another Firefox add-on that requires Firebug. It will give you practical advice on how to speed up your site.
2b. YSlow, another Firebug tool that grades pages and offers yet more concrete suggestions for speeding your site up.
So is your site slow like, well, apparently, this one is? Between those tools, you should find your answer. And do take the time to speed your site up. A faster site will increase page views and time spent on a site while lowering bounce rates. Most importantly, improving a site’s performance has been shown to increase conversions and as we all know, that is where it is at.
Oh and my site? Apparently IE 6 is having a hard time with the @font-face stuff I added the other day. I am starting to think it is time to jettison IE 6 support altogether. Everyone else seems to be doing it.