1. Speed

All the top websites have quick load up times which quickly conveys the information to the viewer. Websites that take too long to load up drives potential viewers away. So what the top websites do is reduce unnecessary graphics and compress their scripts. I wrote an article before on Reducing load times and bandwidth usage. This article tells you how to compress your scripts with php. So when designing your website I would say design it so it loads up in at least under 7 seconds on T1 connection.

2. Color

One thing that every top website has is white as their background or a big color in your website. Not only that they have all the other colors work along with the white. Because certain colors make people feel a certain a way so its good to understand the philosophy of colors when designing a website with whether its with white or not. Every color conveys a certain feeling to your viewers. So know how to manipulate colors.

3. Keep it Simple

Do not make your website too complex. Know how to quickly deliver what your website is about in a few seconds. If you can do this effectively you will keep the viewer on your website if you got what they are looking for.

4. Excellent product or service that caters to the masses

Having an excellent product or service is something that greatly increases your website traffic period. If you have this you will not have to market your product because viral marketing will take over. Viral marketing is the fastest way to spread word about your product or service and all it is word of mouth which is better than SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If people like what you are presenting I guaranteed you will not have to do anything.

5. I can’t tell you everything yet, lol.

Some details I have discovered about having a top website I can’t disclose but instead implement my company website.

1. Compress your images
2. Compress your code

Images – this is something that is very common to use up a lot a bandwidth, if they are not placed in the right format. I use Photoshop and the save for web function they have which can be located under the file on the menu. Of course photoshop cost money but there is a free alternative you can use. I found a website http://www.imageoptimizer.net/Pages/Home.aspx which can optimize your pictures for you! If you decide to do it by the bulk you can download the program off their website.

Code – I use php to code most of my applications and wanted to find a simple way to make it load up faster. Well I have found a simple solution and this is through enabling gzip compression for php. Just put these two lines of code into your php.ini which is your php configuration file found on your server, thats if you have php 5 or higher.

zlib.output_compression = On
zlib.output_compression_level = 6
To make sure it is active, type in your website into this Web Optimizer. It should say congratulations this page is compressed for main domain name. And thats all, with gzip compression enabled it will decrease the size of your code by 80%!