As promised in our Pubcon Overview post, here is a real world example of what we did to improve the website load time for one of our sites. These are rough notes on what was performed on a real website,  how the implementation of each task was done and how it improved the website load time.

The first thing we did was run the website through http://www.webpagetest.org. This is a free tool that will break down your website performance and give each area a score. After we ran the site through this tool, we were presented with a lot of suggestions on how to optimize the site. Following is a break down of each.

Initial page load results

First Phase [Optimize images for faster page load time]:

From the test we saw many images that needed to be reduced (optimized). We went through these images and reduced the file size and from just that we were able to notice a relatively significant decrease from the load time. As you can see from the before and after screen shots below, we were able to cut back almost 200 KB from our images without resorting to a reduction in quality.

Before and after results from compressing image sizes – note the dramatic increase in score after the changes were put in place

Second Phase [Combine JS/CSS Files faster page load]:

We initially had three separate CSS files that were being used for different aspects of the same overall style, which was causing the server to have to unnecessarily download three different files. We combined the three CSS files into one, which saved about one second from the load time.

If you are using WordPress, the WP-Minify app makes this very simple. Merely install the plugin and it will combine Javascript, CSS, and HTML files automatically. We’ve found that this works best when using the Thesis theme, as there have been compatibility complications with other themes.

Before and after results from minifying Javascript and CSS files – note the increase in score after the changes were put in place

Third Phase [Enable GZIP Compression for faster website load time]:

This is more techie but it did improve load time. First make sure your host has compression turned on. Once that is confirmed you can control the GZIP compression through your .htaccess file. I won’t go into detail about what each setting means because there is already a ton of documentation about this on the web.

(A good resource is http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/apache-speed-compression.html)

Instead I will simply provide a screen shot with what we placed in our .htaccess file for the site we tested this on and leave it up to you to read more about what these settings mean.

htaccess GZIP Example

Forth Phase [Minimize serving images and other files from other sources ]:

One of the sections on this particular site was using an API to pull in data. This API passes image urls from another server so this section was having to download and serve the images from that server each time the pages were loaded. We made some modifications to this script so instead of serving the images from the other server, it saves a copy of the image on our server and loads that copy.  This cut off at least 2 seconds from our page loads. While it is not always possible to load everything from your own server (e.g. Google Analytics, Adsense code, etc.) you should minimize this as much as possible.

So that’s the low down of how we improved the load time on one of our websites. We may tweak these settings some more and will document it here if we do, but for now we are satisfied with the improvements. We would love to hear any other tips you may have.

Final page load results

We are always looking for ways to give our members more exposure, which is why we developed a rental search directory on our service RentShout.com.  The RentShout rental directory will showcase our members’ available houses, apartment units and other rentals in featured placement positions.  The directory also pulls in other available rentals from various sources around the web.  There is a built in search feature that allows renters to easily narrow down their results, allowing them to customize their search for what they are looking for.  The region (city) pages also showcase Google maps and local area information. 

The latest and greatest version of WordPress, version 2.8 “Baker” is now available. 2.8 represents a nice fit and finish release for WordPress with improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed. Following is a quick video overview of everything in the new release:

Wordpress keeps on getting better. They make it easy for just about anyone to have a web presence without having to shovel out the big bucks.
Read more about it from http://wordpress.org/development/2009/06/wordpress-28/

A conversion is generally defined as an event that results in a transaction. A “transaction” will be defined differently based on your business model and what your end goal is (ie. information, sign up, subscription, payment, etc.). Regardless of how you define your conversions and transactions, it is important to track where they are coming from.

Maybe you blog on multiple blog platforms such as WordPress. Are you keeping track of leads you get from those platforms and in addition to how many of those leads are converting? Maybe you post videos to different video platforms or syndicate your listings to multiple directories. Maybe you use Twitter or Facebook or focus heavily on your own website. Are you tracking the leads and conversions you receive from all of these sources?

If not, you may be spending valuable time in places that are not giving you a return on your investment. Sure, maybe some of these resources are free but your time is not free; it is an investment. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look at which resources have the highest conversion.

At the bottom of this post is a spreadsheet that can help track your conversions. It includes two sheets; one for keeping track of your daily activity (DailyLog) and the other (MonthlyStats) calculates profit/loss based on your daily log. Feel free to download for your own use. Google spreadsheet is good to use because it allows you to update the spreadsheet on the fly, from the web wherever you are.

Populate this information and you will soon see “how much money” you are actually spending and which platforms have a good return on investment (ROI). If the ROI is negative month after month, you may want to consider dropping that tool and try something else or focusing more on the tools that have a better ROI. I suggest giving a resource at least three months as it is hard to truly evaluate a resource with only a couple weeks of data.

If you run a business, own a brand, write a blog, provide a service, or sell a product, then you should have some kind of marketing strategy. With web development and technology making huge strides every day, there is no shortage of tools available for developing an effective plan for promoting your business. Among the commonly mentioned “Web 2.0″ marketing methods are blogs, social networks, Twitter, podcasts, and video, which all allow you to engage your audience, develop meaningful connections with clients and other like-minded people, and promote your business to people who actually want to learn about it. SlideShare is another (free) tool to slip into that marketing belt.

If you know how to use Powerpoint, then you already have what it takes to market on SlideShare. The site allows you to upload presentations from Powerpoint, OpenOffice, or a PDF file, and share it publicly on the web. As is typical with most social sites, you can connect with other people, comment on their presentations, and develop conversations and relationships with people who are interested in what you have to say. Easily share a tutorial, embed the slideshow into a blog post (like on the Influential Marketing Blog), show off your accomplishments (like Guy Kawasaki), share about your business (like Zappos), promote a property listing (like Realtor Teri Michon), or include links to it from your blog and online marketing material. There are a hundred other ways to use the service… what ideas do you have?

SlideShare presentations are placed into categories for easy visitor searching and can include hyperlinks back to your site, YouTube videos, and voice narration. This can be a very powerful companion for your existing marketing strategy; it’s easy, effective, and free.

Do you pay attention to what’s being said about you and your brand?

It can sometimes be overwhelming and time consuming to keep up with your web presence. Do you know if others are talking about you or your company on the internet? Are you engaging in these discussions about “you”? These discussions may be not even be negative but instead may be a simple mention or even praise. If it is a negative comment or discussion are you there to defend yourself in a timely manner? If it is positive are you there to give your thanks?

Following are a couple of basic resources you can use to help monitor what’s being said about you or your company.

SETUP GOOGLE ALERTS

http://www.google.com/alerts

TWITTER SEARCH FEED

In addition, I add a Twitter search feed to my Google reader. You can get the Twitter search feed by going to http://search.twitter.com, perform a search for your name or company and then click the “Feed this query” link.

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DISCUSSIONS ABOUT YOU IN ONE PLACE

Once you have the Twitter feed, you can simply add it to your Google Reader. Now you have web, blog, news and Twitter discussions about you all in once place. This makes it much easier to respond and connect with others who are discussing “you”.