RealTech with Peter Boritz: Get More Website Traffic

Your website speed can be a key indicator of how many visitors go to your website and spend time learning about your organization. In addition, potential and current clients who wait too long for web pages to load may be reluctant to return to your site.

It has been proven that as little as a five percent increase in your website speed can increase page views by as much as twenty-five percent. Below are some tips to increase the speed of your website:

1. When it comes to your homepage, use facts and keep the page clean and simple. Avoid using Flash videos or animations/graphics that take too much time and bandwidth to load. In the amount of time it takes one of these large files to load, you may have already lost a potential client.
2. Don’t place video links on your homepage. Links from video sites such as YouTube not only take time to load, but often make a web page look cluttered and distracts from the information you want visitors to see.
3. If you need to place video on your site, make certain that the host of the video is within a close proximity. The longer distance the information has to travel, the longer it will take for the page to load.
4. Measure the speed of your site to identify the areas which need improvement. There are various websites, both free and paid, that can check your site for browser compatibility, optimizes images and JavaScript and more.
   

Some useful sites are:

• Aptimize.com
• Google Website Optimizer (free)
• WebsiteOptimization.com (free)

In today’s market, having an informative and well-performing website is key for your business to succeed. Don’t lose opportunities and new customers because your website is too slow.

Postcard from Oxford - TEDGlobal

   

Oxford Museum of Natural History - TEDGlobal Conference

 

Attending the TED conference is always inspiring, entertaining, and energizing , and given the wide range of presenters, it is a great forum to gather ideas from leading edge researchers, writers and experts in the latest developments in science, technology, entertainment and design.  The TED organization is committed to bringing these talks to the world, as they continue to be posted on the TED website.

 

This past week at Oxford was a particularly diverse range of speakers as well as attendees.  With 50 talks over 3 ½ days, it seems the best way to try to absorb all the learning is to seek common threads and themes, along with considering highlights. 

From the first day, with the surprise talk by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on shared global ethics – and the over-riding theme of environmental and social pressures on the planet, the possibilities for great human achievement presented across all disciplines were powerful.

 

Globalization of culture and communication, climate change, technology integration, bio-mimicry, medical and science breakthroughs, and the financial market pressures have created an unprecedented time for innovation in all market sectors. Of the 700 attendees, I met industry leaders from India, Japan, Cairo, Brazil, UK, South Africa, Hong Kong, Europe, and the US, among others – all seeking new ways of leading their businesses into the future.

For me, a few highlights were Bertrand Piccard, unveiling his new solar only powered aircraft slated to fly around the globe next summer (including through the night); Cameron Sinclair from Architecture for Humanity on construction sites around the world; Daniel Pink on the science of motivation (due out with his new book), and of course the session on city-building. We are now working with new sustainable design practices, new tools and technologies that allow us to create better cities – both in the developing world, as well as improving the cities we live in.

 

While caution and potential risks were debated, prevailing optimism and hope for humanity and the planet was the ultimate take away from TEDGlobal.  I'm thinking about all of this today as we develop the design of a residential and commercial center for 30,000 people in China. We have unprecedented opportunity and powerful responsibility to enhance the lives of the people and their community. 

RealTech with Peter Boritz: Surviving the Conficker Virus