Download - Everything you wanted to know about web performance* *but were afraid to ask.

Everything you wanted to know about web performance*

*but were afraid to ask

The impact of performance on business metrics

www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

4.4 seconds is the average delay in website response times when business performance begins to decline.

Source: TRAC Research www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

The average revenue loss of one hour of website slowdowns:

$4,100


Website slowdowns can have twice the revenue impact on an organization

as an outage.


Load time Page views Bounce rate Conversion rate

3 seconds - 22% + 50% - 22%

5 seconds - 35% + 105% - 38%

10 seconds - 46% + 135% - 42%

Source: Strangeloop www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

Speeding up a page by just 4 seconds decreases abandonment by 25%.

Source: Gomez www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

The psychology of user expectations

Website performance is second only to security in user expectations.

Source: Forrester Consulting www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

Brain wave analysis reveals that people must concentrate

up to 50% harder when using badly performing websites.

Source: Foviance www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

> 0.1 seconds gives us the illusion of instantaneous response.> 1 second keeps our flow of thought seamless. > 10 seconds keeps our attention, just barely. > After 10 seconds, we start thinking about other things, making it harder to get back into our task when the website finally responds.

Source: Jakob Nielsen www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

A user who has to endure an 8-second download delay spends only 1% of their total viewing time looking at the featured promotional space on a

landing page.

In contrast, a user who receives instantaneous page rendering spends 20% of viewing time within the

promotional area.

Source: Jakob Nielsen www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

“There’s a fascinating study (and podcast) that claim ‘the truth about download time’.

The findings were that when people complete their task, they perceive the site

as fast, although it may be slower than another site that frustrated them.”

Source: Stoyan Stefanov www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

77% of European consumers blame either the website owner or the website host when an online application

fails.

Even if the problem is due to external factors, such as connectivity, slow site speed becomes a defining

characteristic of the website in the minds of many people.

Source: CA Technologies www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

“…time also flows differently depending on age – perceived 3 minutes for a 20-year-old are in reality 3:03 and, for a 60-year-old, 3 minutes are in reality 3:40.”

Source: Stoyan Stefanov www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

How web pages have changed

A survey of Fortune 500 websites found that:

75% contained third-party javascript 42% had third-party ads

Source: Dasient www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

“TechCrunch is a behemoth of a site, weighing in at just over 4 MB of data, 329 page elements, and a

whopping 65 domains.

About half of this comes from them directly. The rest comes from over 20 third parties.

You read that correctly: 65 domains in total and half the content originates

from someone else.”

Source: Keynote www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

Mobile web performance

“The majority of study participants said they expect to be able to complete simple

transactions like checking their bank balance in a minute or less [using their mobile device] ,

or they will abandon the site.”

Source: Equation Research www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

Mobile web users over the age of 45

are more impatient – not less – than members of “Generation Y”.

Source: Equation Research www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

The browser wars

“IE6 is still used by 4-5% of the slightly older than average shoppers at LLBean.com.

In China, 60% of online shoppers use IE6.

Each retailer must consider its own customers and the browsers they use when deciding how important each

browser is.”

Source: Internet Retailer www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

In a survey of the Alexa-ranked top 200 retail sites, Internet Explorer 9 has very little impact – and possibly even a negative impact –

compared to Internet Explorer 8, in terms of page load time and time to start render.

Source: Strangeloop www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

Search engine ranking

After speeding up load time by 45%, a test page experienced a 15% increase

in Google search traffic.

Source: Light Speed Now www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

“If your page load time exceeds <4 seconds within the Google Webmaster Tools you can

safely bet that you are being scored differently [in Google search] than a site with an average

of less than >4 seconds.”

Source: Webmaster World discussion forum www.strangeloopnetworks.com/web-performance-optimization-hub

For more web performance research,visit the Strangeloop WPO Hub:
