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Oct 10 in Small e-Business
Written by: Harris
Web pages should finish loading in less than 3 seconds!
In 1998 the Graphics Visualization and Usability Center (www.gvu.gatech.edu) conducted a survey to identify website problems experienced by Internet users.
Biggest Web Site Annoyances:
| Advertising banners that take too long to load | 62.3% |
| It takes too long to view/download pages | 61.4% |
| Encountering links that do not work (i.e., linkrot) | 57.1% |
* Full report is available at www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys
It should be no surprise that speed is a top priority for Internet users – we upgrade our computers because we want faster computers, and we upgrade to broadband because we want faster Internet. But “fast” is a relative term, and the pursuit of speed is relentless.
Clearly speed is not as much of a problem today, as it was in the days of dial-up Internet access, but it continues to be a measure of the quality of a website. Internet users may have been patient enough to wait a couple of minutes for a website to load in 1995, but in 2007 more than 10 seconds is an eternity – and a death knell for any website!
Why are websites slow?
| Excessive use of Flash |
| Excessive graphics |
| Slow Hosting server |
| Excessive JavaScript |
| Long pages |
| Poor programming of scripts & database |
Website Performance Benchmark
* The above assumes user has a broadband connection
Test your website’s speed at www.webpagetest.org
The average user spends a few seconds on the landing page deciding if the web site is even vaguely interesting. If not, they will click the back button and try another website. If the site interests them, they will scan the menu system for more information, and click on another page.
Any delays during that few seconds of browsing may exhaust their patience, and provoke them to exit the website and look for better pickings. Remember, the Internet is the biggest shopping mall in the world – if they don’t like the service, they need only try the competition next door!
Tags:
broadband connection test, ecommerce, excessive graphics, faster computers, hosting server, performance benchmark, poor programming, Small e-Business, usability center, website design, website performance
About the author
I have been in the Internet industry since 1994, when I was one of the directors and owners of Cyberloom Pty Ltd - an early ISP based in Sydney, NSW. Cyberloom was sold in 2001. That's when I started X Pty Ltd as a website development company. xEcommerce.com.au is now my primary focus. xEcommerce.com.au builds small business sites on two platforms - Magento & Wordpress. One day I would like to operate the business from the Greek Island of Meganisi - and why not? The Internet is everywhere! ;)
