No matter how great your content is, or how closely it answers your visitor's question or addresses their needs - they won't stick around long if your site takes too long to download. The question is, how can you find out how long it takes - and what can you do about it?

1. Find out how long your site takes to load - You can use a free service such as the load time checker at: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ to determine how quickly your website loads in the average browser using different connection speeds.

The Website Optimization Analyzer will also provide tips on minimizing your load time - however unless you're very familiar with web design terminology, chances are, it won't make much sense! That's where this article comes in handy.

2. Check your multimedia files - Large movies and Flash presentations can take a long time to download. If your website uses a Flash introduction - consider removing it entirely (no matter how cool it looks!) as 98% of your visitors will bypass it anyway - looking at it like an obstacle in their way of finding information rather than a really neat presentation.

Also consider optimizing your movie files by having them streamed through a third-party service such as YouTube, MetaCafe or Google Video. That lessens the strain on your own web hosting bandwidth and will make your own page load somewhat faster.

3. Optimize your images - Got a large image on your page? Today's top graphic design programs can often shrink the size of your site images considerably without any loss in quality. For photos, use the JPEG format, and for standard website graphics (buttons, boxes, etc.) use GIF or PNG preferably.

4. Specify the height and width of images correctly - Don't ever use a web page editor's built in height and width form fields to resize your graphics - they'll only end up looking chunky and pixilated.

Instead, resize them in your graphics program and put the correct height and width in your editing program for best results. Consult your web or graphics designer for help if you're uncertain how to do this.
5. Consider switching web hosts - Sometimes, no matter how much work you've done to trim your website's loading size, it still seems to download at a snail's pace. When this happens consistently, it may be time to look into a new web hosting company.

Some web hosts store your site on old, outdated servers which take entirely too long to "serve" your pages to the public. There are many good hosts online today equipped with more modern, faster-serving equipment that can help boost your website's load time when you've done everything you can on your side.

In the end, look at your website's individual graphics, multimedia files and code the same way you would look at questionable food that's been in your refrigerator for too long -- "When in doubt, throw it out!" - your visitors will appreciate it!