Too often, web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer in the same breath, but the truth is that they are different, although very closely related. Bandwidth is how much data can be transferred at a time, and data transfer is how much is shared.

Think of it this way. If bandwidth were a bridge, the more significant the bridge, the more vehicles can pass through it. Data transfer is the number of cars allowed on the bridge monthly. In essence, data transfer is the consumption of bandwidth.

How Does It Affect the Site?

The less bandwidth you have, the slower your site loads, regardless of the visitor’s connection type. If you have more visitors, some will have to wait their turn. The less data transfer you have, the more often you’ll find your site unavailable because you’ve reached the maximum allowed until a new month rolls by or you upgrade your account.

How can we Reduce Transfers?

You can reduce your transfer amount by building more straightforward, more efficient websites and optimizing graphics. Refrain from fancy flash presentations or streaming audio. Use CSS and JavaScript externally instead of embedding them on every page. Remove unwanted tags, white space and comments. Limit your META tags to those necessary. Having too many keywords is not search engine-friendly. Besides, many search engines will only review the first few and ignore the rest.

Another good idea is to cache your website, but you might want to set an expiration date in the HTTP headers so the browser will refresh the content after a specific time. Use mod-gzip. It could save you as much as 40% of your capacity. Out-of-control robots can also suck down your bandwidth like a black hole. So, use robots.txt to keep spiders in check.