Content is King. Site optimization and site speed should be in the front of your mind when determining what content and media to place on your website.

When designing your website pages, always be mindful of what you’re putting into your site, in terms of how it will reflect on site speed and the user experience. Each image downloaded, video embedded, JavaScript and CSS file downloaded, web font – each of these – slows pages down. It is always good to be aware of what you’re placing on your website and only include what is pertinent to the page.

Only put images and media items such as videos onto a page if they’re a key message and have relevance for what the user requires. Always design with the user in mind: does the copy/image/videos help to get your message across or answer any questions the user has? The more a browser downloads, potentially the slower the page loads. This is especially important if the user is on mobile or has a slower internet connection. For example, padding a website page with a number of large file-size stock photos that aren’t valuable to the user can be a hindrance more than a help.

With written online content, avoid large blocks of text and only add the “meat and potatoes” of the subject, avoiding extraneous and unnecessary words. Also, it is good to employ the journalist’s “inverted pyramid” process, placing the most important information at the start and then supplying more secondary information as the article goes on. Users have a tendency to scan articles for the most part, so only add the information they want, break up the text and use headers to separate the content.

Always focus primarily on what the user wants from your website and keep this as the main goal when designing the content and website. A frustrated user is an unhappy user, so always be mindful of your page and the experience it presents for your user.