‘Database’ is one of the most commonly used terms that one encounters in web site design. Yet, what they really are and whether they’re essential is often not clear to novices.

A database is a collection of organized data, stored in files that have a specific structure. It’s that organization and structure that allows for easy and rapid storage and retrieval.

The need for a database generally only arises when you have a certain amount of information and that information needs to have some structure. If you have a half-dozen names and addresses to store, a database is usually overkill. If you have a blob of data with no relationships between any of the items in that blob, maintaining a database is usually more trouble than it’s worth.

Maintain a database? Yes, like other complex systems a database, to be effective, needs to be designed properly at the outset then kept ‘tuned’ for good performance. The alternative is to gradually allow the database to become more and more disorganized. That leads to difficulty in use, poor speed of retrieval and more frequent failures.

With MySQL, Access or MS SQL Server, the three most common choices of database product for web sites today, setting up a database is relatively simple. Even those with limited technical skill can get one up and running just by following some simple instructions. But some thought should be given to how you want the information organized, and to maintaining the system during its lifetime.

Suppose you have a set of names, addresses, email addresses, products purchased, date purchased and amount. If you have only a few dozen records it matters very little how these pieces are arranged and related. A database usually isn’t even warranted in this scenario. Once you have several thousand or more records, it matters a lot. Speed, the ease of expanding the set of attributes (like adding, say, product category), and other issues come into play.

Even those with little technical expertise, but a willingness to exert logical thought and invest some time, can build a very robust database. Think about how you would organize a set of data (called ‘tables’). Should Name, Address, and Product be in the same table? Or should the personal information be stored in one table and any product information (product, price, …) in another?

Some experimentation may be needed to get it right, but the choices have an impact on how easy the tables are to maintain. It also affects the speed with which programs can fetch old data and store the new.

Having a database also introduces new maintenance issues for the server administrator, since backups usually need to be done differently. Recovering a failed database is usually more complicated than simply re-copying files from yesterday. Ask your hosting company what tools and skills they have for dealing with any database system you consider.

It’s true that introducing a database creates more complexity and the need for additional thought and administrative effort. At a certain level, professional expertise will be needed. But clearly the advantages outweigh the costs in many cases. Companies large and small eventually use databases to store and organize data. At some point, you may be fortunate enough to be one of them.

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In addition to using the site www.websiteoptimization.com to analyze your web site, according to my experience, the speed of loading a site also depends on:

- Speed internet access at the user’s connection and condition at the time.

- The number/size of the source that is connected to an external page within your website.

- A large image files or the total size of the image file in a web site.

- The query process to access the database at a web site.

Description :
The trusted web hosting company surely has sufficient bandwidth to connect to web servers. So if there is a problem with the connection to the web site, before you make a complaint to the web hosting company, try checking the connection to other sites on the internet first, such as to www.linux.org. If the access to other sites also feels slow, you need to be aware of :

- The problem of virus in your own computer (the data send/receive data to/from the Internet continuously without you noticing).

- Troubleshooting Internet connection through your ISP (Due to the network damage for example, or a maintenance process).

So if the access to the web sites suddenly become slow, do not necessarily blame your web hosting company, perhaps it is possible that the problem might be from your computer or on the internet provider (ISP).

Your site might accessing information taken from other sites in the form of “RSS feeds”. At the time the website was opened by the visitor, the website will access the origin sites. This resulted in a delay in accessing your website, which  will also take time.

If you upload the image file size dimension 1024 x 768 pixels on the page of your website (average file size is above 1MB) and at the web site is accessed, then the visitor’s browser will try to download the image file with other text. The bigger file of the image on the web site, then the larger the total size of web site page.

Your web site using Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla or Mambo, which uses a database and PHP. If you activate too many modules, each module will access the database each time a visitor opens the page of your website. If the query from the database pages to the site is too much, your website will be loading heavy and slow when opened.

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