Third-Party widget can slow down your Site

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Cbox are just one of those many free third-party chat widget that you can add on your website. Adding this widget, you can have the chance to do real time interactions with your visitors - which  I love most! Unfortunately, when I added this widget, my blog site started loading too slow.

I noticed that third-party widgets can slow my web pages down the most. Its true. When I browsing my site, my page loads first then takes a few seconds to load the Facebook fan button, google+ button, adsense, live-chat widget etc. So I as much as I wanted to retain the latter, I have no choice but to remove it.

Here are other reasons why your site may be unresponsive or too slow:

• Usage of heavy images and videos everywhere. Use lighter images and sorter videos if possible. Images directly from your digital camera can be too big. Take time to re-size before you upload it on your site. 
• Usage of JavaScript and Flash too much. It is best to avoid flashy images as it will slow down your site. 
• Usage of third party widgets that may connect to other sites to load.  Keep third-party applications to a minimum. I all want my web site to be filled with interactive widgets and sidebars filled with cool content, but I realized that some apps that pulls from the database can be a potential threat. Verify the necessity of each widget and remove the unnecessary ones.

Note to self: Unless they are absolutely necessary, don’t install them

• Heavy theme. Use a theme that are more of HTML, CSS.  Avoid using of images for background. Noticed that I've only use color for my background. (Press CTRL + U, to inspect code)
• Slow server. Choose the right hosting provider for you. If you are not into shared hosting, you can use VPS and Dedicated servers instead, price is quite hefty though.

Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want your blog to rank high in the search results, you need to make sure your blog loads faster than others.