How long would you wait for a web page to download when you are visiting a website? For most of people, just under 3 and half seconds! And we are talking about very patient potential customers here.

There are many reasons that can affect the speed that web pages download, graphic images being one of the big factors. Following are some useful tips when designing a webpage using graphic images.

Do not use too many images:
It is all nice for your website to look colourful and full of fancy images but it is no good when it takes 10 seconds to download each web page. Images need HTML codes and the more the images, the more the codes are. In order for images to be displayed, their codes have to be read first. A long chain of unnecessary codes takes longer reading and loading time. Remember, only use necessary images on your website. This is not only making the download time shorter but also will help your potential customers focus on the message you try to deliver. Remember, sometimes less is more.

Avoid using big images or graphics:
The bigger the image/graphic the more byte capacity it takes to your website which means it can cause loading problem for your po
tential customers who have slow internet connection or older computers. By using appropriate image sizes to accommodate all users is one of the keys to a successful website design.

Using still text and images:
Using animations certainly is an attention getter but sometimes it can be irritating when it becomes too much. Overloading your website with movable or animation graphics/text will not only slow down the loading of your web page but also may distract your potential customers' attention. Therefore, the advice here is to use animations moderately and not get carried away with it.

Utilise browser caches:
To Reduce loading time, you can put similar graphics in one folder or directory and if you have to use the same graphics on different places of your websites, remember to reuse the same buttons or icons or graphics by calling it from the same places. This way allows browser caches to work more efficiently for whoever is revisiting your website.

There are many factors that contribute towards good website traffic, all the tips given above are just some of them, you may consider which is the most suitable for your website content and target audience. One important thing to remember is make your potential customers' life easier, they will make your richer.