Subscribe via RSSHow to Know Your Web Page is Overweight
January 13, 2008
Do you make this mistake as a blogger: leaving your blog grow as big as it can and become overweight? This article focus on teaching you how to check up the weight (size in KB) of your web page. You can find here:
- Manually check the size;
- Using calculation tools; and
- The negative effect on visitors
1. Manually check the size
Here is how you can manually check the weight of webpage:
1. Press Ctrl+S for short. Or on Firefox click File > Save Page As..., on Internet Explorer click File > Save As...
2. On the Save As dialog, select the folder where you want to save the page to, and remember it.
Make sure in the Save As Type, you check the Web Page, complete option so that all images, scripts, css files, everything is downloaded. Internet Explorer makes things much easier by giving the option to save as type: Web Archive, single file (*.mht).
3. Open the folder where you save the files, select the file and folder downloaded from step 2.
4. Right click to activate context menu, then click Properties.
5. Read the file size from the dialog box, it should look similar to this:
2. Using calculation tools
OK, you just learned how to check the file size manually. Now come the question, why do such time consuming work by yourself? Well, the answer is more accurate in size. But what about the analysis? Here is a tool that allow you to analyse your web page and estimate the load time.
The tool is Web Page Speed Report. Give it a try and applause the maker for giving away such wonderful tool for free. My warning is that this report doesn't include IFRAME pages from Google Ads and the images loaded by external javascript.
Here is the ... very disappointing fact about my home page, which acording to the tool the size is only 160595 bytes but the speed result are:
| Connection Rate | Download Time |
|---|---|
| 14.4K | 131.47 seconds |
| 28.8K | 69.23 seconds |
| 33.6K | 60.34 seconds |
| 56K | 39.01 seconds |
| ISDN 128K | 16.80 seconds |
| T1 1.44Mbps | 7.85 seconds |
3. The negative effect on visitors
I thought about writing the effect of page weight on the visitor waiting time, but I found this perfect article about it. I don't think it's wise to re-invent the wheel so I would like to use that article as a reference. You can start reading Page Weight Tested to get some insight about page weight and its importance.
The page load time will sure depend on the server processing time, too. It depends on how many and what type of plugins you use as well. That's another story to tell. Here is what you need to know before you make a mistake with your over weight pages:
| Visitor Abandonment | |
|---|---|
| Page Load Time | Percent of UsersContinuing to Wait |
| 10 seconds | 84% |
| 15 seconds | 51% |
| 20 seconds | 26% |
| 30 seconds | 5% |
As you can see, I'm not very happy with my blog homepage weight because it's over 200KB. According to the research found on Page Weight Tested that's over 26s load time on a dial-up browser and that's driving 95% of dialup visitors away from my homepage.
Fortunately with the minimal design and minimal sidebar usage my homepage is still smaller than the vast of other blogs. With the weight in mind I made my blog post less than 100KB.
What's next?
Do you still remember my opinion about Major Issues With common Blog Layout? If you haven't read that post then it's a good time to do so now. This post is one of the the first series of 10 upcoming posts. I will try my best to complete all those in the list shortly after the new design is out.
Now you know how to check the Web page weight, it's time for you to take actions. If you are here, I would love to see you leave a comment to say about your own test results?
Update 19/01/2007: The blogosphere seems to be interesting. I found a few posts related to web page size today:
- Does your page load size suck? Mine does
- The Neverending Saga of Bad Webpage Decisions… Ad Placement and Impressions
Tags: analysis, Blogging, tools, Web design
Hm...
Mine isn't the best load time right now.
But that's mostly because I just posted a new post with seven medium sized images in it.
Besides, I could trim it up a little bit...
I have a completely custom layout idea for it that I want to poke at when I get the time...
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
I know, I know, I know...
That layout. I'm working on it...
hi binh
This article is very useful and important for all bloggers.
Have a nice time
Brian Purkiss » If your is not, I don't know who else have best load time. Well, yes, I see. Putting some full photo posts on the front page is like asking for trouble. That's why I use Post Teaser plugin so that my homepage is not a big trouble anymore, but still am unsatisfied with the result.
Another issue is that WordPress add too much sh.t into the html tags and I hate it. When I have time I will rewrite the core or publish my cleaner plugin for the sake of light-weight web pages. Argh! speaking of time...
Mahdi » Thanks for coming back. I love people who comment on my blog. I also visit yours and like it. Keep up the good work there at http://parchamazad.com I will be visiting often.
Binh,
thanks for dropping by my blog. I usually check my blog's "weight" in my FTP because it shows how much size it has become. This is a part of my maintenance program for my blog.
jessie » Thanks for visiting mine, too. FTP can't tell you the real weight because most heavy objects are on external sites. Those are javascript widgets, images, user avatars, etc... not on your host. So far the save page method is most accurate.
Great information contained in your blog. Going to continue reading it as well.
Can't help myself.
Well worth sharing with others
I have some blog tips and tricks on my blog as well.
If interested perhaps we can arrange something here.
Wendy
Wendy » Thanks for your compliment and willing to be a reader. I still am under heavy reconstruction and putting few hundred posts in the pre-draft stage. So yes, please subscribe to my feed so that you will can find out what I will write next.
Your blog is wonderful too. I visited it few times before. I like your tips as well.
I'm not promoting this blog as much as I should. If you can share the words I will be so happy to receive new potential readers. Many thanks in advance.
Hmmm I think you can use that I web tool http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test .. Hmmm I also wrote a post on that check, cos had a hiccup with a pluging. I think it will be interesting
slBlogs.org suffer and recover critical website speed crisis
Hi Binh,
Thanks for your comments! What don't you like about WordPress? It has almost become the de facto standard for blogs these days.
Mine, it's written on my own framework (which I talk about in the post you commented on). Are you a PHP developer? I'm thinking of releasing the framework soon, in case it's of use to anyone. It's certainly a lot more lightweight than other frameworks like Cake. But don't confuse a CMS (Content Management System) like Drupal with a framework - a CMS is ready to build a site on with minimal coding, but a framework is just a collection of classes that make site creation easier - you still have to code the site!
Anyway, thanks for the comments. I'll be sure to keep an eye on your blog.
Josh » Thanks for coming by.
WordPress doesn't offer much options for Category and Tags. It makes those pages become burden for Search Engine instead of useful popluar pages of your blog. I never received a search user visiting my Category pages. It also give unnecessary CSS classes, and many more. I will need to write a post to state all the weakness.
I will reply to the rest of your comment on your post.
Josh » WordPress is still heavy for me. And it sucks at organizing categories, tags, and archive pages. Too many plugins are needed to make a WP blog a good blog.
A framework is interesting but I think the amount of coding will freak people away. It might help for making new CMS.
Safari:
Window > Activity
or: Command, Option, A