Starting in February 2008, Google is grading landing pages on how long it takes them to load. If your page loads slowly on your visitors’ machines, you’ll get slapped by Google even if the content on the page fulfills your prospects’ wildest dreams.

How do you create a quick-loading page? Clean code, using CSS, avoiding flash, and keeping graphical and video elements to a minimum.

For the best introduction to user-friendly web design, including tips that will have your pages loading quickly, check out Save The Pixel by my friend Ben Hunt.