Make clickable buttons using imagemaps instead of multiple hypertext links and multiple graphics. There are shareware programs that make this process very simple (MapThis for PCs and WebMap for Macintosh available from http://www.Shareware.com/) Here is an unmapped clickable image for Midnight Special Bookstore:

Reason: 1 large graphic loads faster than 5 smaller graphics even if the combined size of the 5 images is less than the size of the one large image.

This happens because the web client (i.e. Netscape) has to negotiate an individual TCP/IP connection with the web server (i.e. Apache) for each of these images. Once it has negotiated the connection it must transfer the data. Then it must close the conniption, write it to disk and open another connection for the next graphic.

To illustrate this try visiting the Microsoft's site at http://www.microsoft.com/. Next, check out EastWest Bookshop's homepage where they use image maps: http://www.tfront.com/

Another example of this in action is when you try to transfer files across your local network at your home or office. If you have any kind of network (Appletalk, Netware, TCP/IP), try transferring numerous files that collectively equal 10 Megabytes (Your whole website for instance, or maybe your Preferences folder if you use Macintosh). Then try transferring 1 file that is 10 Megabytes in size (A large image, or a compressed archive). The single file will transfer in no time, while the individual files will be slow to move.

Summary: Combine multiple graphics into one whenever possible.