Thread: My index.html (home) page loads slow.

When I go to my web site www.alexusjewelry.net the home (index) page takes forever and a lifetime to load. Once the home page does load it seems like the other pages go a little faster, as they do use the same template. I have an idea it might be the background image that is slowing me down but not sure. It was created in photoshop cs3 and saved as a JPEG file, as all the pictures on my site are. Is there a way to keep using this background image, but make it load faster ? In need of some help here....Thanks.

Few ideas :)
The background image is to large....and...it repeats itself many times on the big screen...maybe better not to use this image like a background, but separately and put all the text and others on this image and background in the page can be some solid or gradient color...
Greetings :)

Yes you should use proper background images when tiled,
the joints willlook seamless. ther are a lot of free backgrounds on the internet. You only have to look for them.

Your page should be centered and not aligned left. The settings are in page properties in BV.

I agree with all the comments above.

You can also consider the following:

Index page can be a "gateway" to the rest of your website.

Have some good content with keywords placed on the page,
especially your first paragraph.

Divide and conquer
To make it load faster, you can divide jewelry
into types - extend the menu with these types
such as Rings, Pendants, and perhaps others.

In future
In About Us, you have stated that you do custom design.
May be in a menu item, you can describe briefly or in detail
how you do it.

The more your potential customer know about the product,
the better you will be to make a sale.

Give them some info about each piece of the jewelry.

Just a suggestion.

Originally Posted by jmustone

Few ideas :)
The background image is to large....and...it repeats itself many times on the big screen...maybe better not to use this image like a background, but separately and put all the text and others on this image and background in the page can be some solid or gradient color...
Greetings :)

Are you saying I should insert it as an image and enlarge it to cover the whole page, rather than using the background feature ? And treat it like a layer (like in photoshop), and insert other photos and text on top of it ?
It's worth a try if it'll make it load faster... thanks for the advice, I appreciate it !

Adam,

Originally Posted by zuriatman

Yes you should use proper background images when tiled,
the joints willlook seamless. ther are a lot of free backgrounds on the internet. You only have to look for them.

Your page should be centered and not aligned left. The settings are in page properties in BV.

I didnt think I had to center it as I thought at 985 wide it would fill the whole screen. Is it off center on your monitor ? What size is your monitor ? I'll go center it, thanks for the heads up.

Adam,

Originally Posted by wysiwyg4

Divide and conquer
To make it load faster, you can divide jewelry
into types - extend the menu with these types
such as Rings, Pendants, and perhaps others.

Give them some info about each piece of the jewelry.

Just a suggestion.

By "extend the menu" do you mean the navigation bar that goes across the page under the header ? Im not sure how I could do that as I dont have enough jewelry to make separate pages for each catagory. I have plenty of pendants (14) right now but only 2 rings made up, and 0 earrings made at this point. I'm working on a pair of earrings right now by they are already sold (custom order). Also, I hesitate to make up many rings, as I have to make them to size. So when I get an order for a ring, I make the ring to the size they specify.
Do you think I should separate them anyway I only have 4 products per page ? Your advice is greatly needed.

Adam,

Originally Posted by alexusjewelry

I didnt think I had to center it as I thought at 985 wide it would fill the whole screen. Is it off center on your monitor ? What size is your monitor ? I'll go center it, thanks for the heads up.

Adam,

When you use "Center webpage horizontally| in BV page properties, Your webpage will always be in the center of your browser iregardless of what is the size of the viewers browser.

Hello Adam,

The website really doesn't look that bad. I really like the blue you have it matches most all mineral jewlery. Although just a few sujestions to help you out.

1.Make sure all pages are centered, that can be found if you right click on any part of your design page in BV, then go to page properties just like Zuriatman mentioned.
2.Your guest book page has a background on the sing-in part that doesn't match the rest of the website theme wise. Try to use a solid tint that will bring out a color on the page that you only see a little of. That will help the page pop out.
3.On your background, your image will be ok to use if you stay with-in the limits of your page contect. for example you draw a huge box and all your content is in that box. The ouside of that box should be just a color or could be a collage of jewlery images but small in size. But for the most part I think it look great.

Oh pick resizer is good too and I use it, also I use gimp it's free and is more like a photoshop and totaly free. it's a little easier then pic-resizer and can do more.

Hope this helps

It's the scroller script ... always make sure it is at the TOP of your page head positions, so it is read first before loading of any picture begins: as it is now, picture loading begins and is then interrupted by the scroller script, only to resume picture loading. That is the 2 second gap in delivering the page.

I would choose a complimentary lighter blue color and set it as a background - set the page off and define it gently with color, centered in the browser, of course. Will make your page background all the slicker.

Go back and cross all your T's and dot your i's .... do all the refined KW/METADATA, ti ghten your Content composition, and cleverly embellish your item descriptions so to stand out from the tens of thousands of competing sites in the industry.

For me your pictures are the last items to load.
Have you resized (smaller size) them so they can load faster?


Cheers,