The total size of the files needed to display a document, (or weight) is the most important, but not the only aspect that influences download speed. There are other variables that need to be considered:
:arrow: Bandwidth (of course), both user's and server's.
:arrow: Location - the closer the server is to the user, the less routing is involved, reducing the time it takes for packages to reach their destination.
:arrow: Performance - requests take longer to process on slow servers (obvious for dynamic pages) and pages are saved and redered slower locally on very slow computers. This should not be a problem these days, but you do need to think about it.
For and average size, I really don't know what to say. Connections are getting faster and faster as the Internet evolves. Here are 2 examples:
140 KB on Macromedia's index page
200 KB on 2AdvancedNet's (the hosting branch of 2A) index page
These are high-quality pages, mid-sized I'd say. They benefit from the best hosting solutions, so that's as fast as you can get, unless you go plug a LAN cable directly into their servers.
A few pointers:
:arrow: Drop MS FrontPage.
Use Macromedia DreamWeaver. It even has code optimization, so you don't need to worry about futile code.
:arrow: If you use a tiled background, make the tile as small as possible. Optimize it for 1024X768 or 800X600 screen rez. (depends on the kind of people that view your site.User statistics are A MUST.)
:arrow: Use CSS and HTML effects whenever possible instead of graphics (you may think a 5KB image isn't much, but if you allow yourself to use 10 such images, you just added 50KB to the website). Don't insert a graphic unless it NEEDS to go there.
Good luck.
how big should my pages be???
0 posts this year. needs some grease!
just one correction though:
Linear Mode
