Too much content, especially large images, audio, video, custom fonts, social media widgets, and downloads can slow down page load time and create other issues that may frustrate visitors, particularly if they are trying to retrieve the content on a mobile phone, slow connection, or assistive technology.
Optimization is the process of making something as perfect, functional, or effective as possible. In terms of a website, the optimization process pertains to content, images and other rich media. The goal is to provide robust content while still keeping it concise.
On this page:
Image Optimization
When too large an image is included on a Web page load time of the page increases and there is even a risk that the image may not load on some devices. Please follow best practices for images on your website.
Multimedia Optimization & Best Practices
Please use services such as Vimeo, YouTube and SoundCloud to host multimedia that you want to embed on your website. These services re-encodes the files to optimize their playback quality. If this is not possible then please contact us.
- All multimedia must have a Captions, Audio Description or Transcripts
- Do not set multimedia to auto play.
- Provide alternate access to the media in case access is hindered. If the embedded video won’t play a visitor can still access the media from a direct link to the content on YouTube, SoundCloud, etc. or other alternate option which may play better for your visitor. This is a really helpful failsafe for when code breaks or devices are incompatible.
- You are also encouraged to include your email address with an invitation to contact you if for any reason the visitor is unable to access the media.
- Technology, browsers, multimedia and embed codes are constantly changing. Review pages with multimedia frequently and be aware of changes in the cloud services.
- Because this content is so “shifty,” we highly recommend running these pages through the recommended tests and evaluations.
See the how to instructions for WordPress or Drupal for specific details.
For more specific details about the requirements from the WebAIM site and for solution ideas see the DIAGRAM (Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) Center.
Downloads
Linking to a download won’t effect your webpage load time but could ruin your visitor’s day if they click on the link to the download and aren’t expecting the download. Make sure you have compressed the file and don’t forget to make the document accessible before linking to it.
Be courteous and make sure people know what they’re getting themselves into. Make sure links to downloads clearly state the file size and type. Some people may be on a bad connection, a cell phone or in any other situation where trying to download some mega file could really mess them up — even crash their device.
If practical for your content, you could offer a summary or sample file, under 1MB, a low-res version and then the full-res version.
Historically, the common recommendation is for documents, such as pdf, to be below 1 MB, which is not always possible. Also be aware, that many email services balk if you try to attach a file larger the 10MB.
For PDF files follow these instructions to make the document accessible and try this site to compress it: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html. There are many different ways to build a PDF so we’re not able to provide instructions on how to optimize the file. There should be options in the editor to clean, compress and/or optimize. There may also be a save for the web option. A quick search for optimizing for your editor should result in the solution.
