A website’s speed has always been a deciding factor for users, which let them determine whether they would stay on the page or navigate away. Even is a website has a beautiful design, most relevant information and great navigation features, it’s of no use if the page takes too long to load. These days people are getting impatient and wouldn’t want to wait even for the best of websites to load. They would rather shift to another site that gives them instant access to their pages. So, have you made a check on your website’s speed?
Remember that it is not the duty of website designers or web developers alone to take care of website optimization. Both the teams need to work together hand in hand and have clear concepts and good communication. So, you must make sure that you hire the best website development company in Bangalore, who has the finest of both the teams to take care of every aspect of optimization.
How important is speed for a website?
According to the statistics collected last year by Pingdom – a website speed checker tool – to check website speed optimization,
- The average load time was 5 seconds
- The average page size was 3 MB
- The average number of images was 42
- The average number of JavaScripts was 21
- The average number of HTTP requests was 89
This shows that a majority of websites are not yet fully optimized for speed.
Amazon has discovered that for every one second delay, conversions dropped by 7%. On the other hand, Walmart has discovered that for every 100 ms of improvement, 1% more revenue is gained. These two major companies have impressed their customers with a fast website, their brand authority and products falling at the second place. This will make you realize how important website speed is.
How fast should a website be?
As per a survey conducted way back in 2011 –
- If a website loaded in 5 seconds, it was faster than 25% of the Web
- If a website loaded in 2.9 seconds, it was faster than 50% of the Web
- If a website loaded in 1.7 seconds, it was faster than 75% of the Web
- If a website loaded in 0.8 seconds, it was faster than 94% of the Web
But today, after 5 years of this survey, it is obvious that the numbers have changed drastically! If you now ask how fast your website should load, Maile Ohye of Google says, “2 seconds is the threshold for e-commerce website acceptability. At Google, we aim for under a half second.” Can you imagine half a second! Half a second means only 500 ms (milliseconds). Compare it to the blink of an eye, which is approximately 300 to 400 ms. So, if you want to stay ahead, your website should load as fast as 500 ms or as slow as only 2 seconds!
How to improve the speed of a website?
Make sure to categorize all your elements differently so that your page starts loading faster. Every element takes different time to load. Put up elements in such a way that at least the most relevant information is loaded quickly while the other elements load as and when the users scroll down the site. Avoid putting up lots of images on your page. But, if you really have to put them up, make sure you optimize each one to the most appropriate size so that your pages load faster.
Most importantly, remember that if you choose a hosting company only because it helps you save on your wallet as compared to others, remember that you will get only what you pay for and be ready to get the cheapest quality services too. But, if you pay for a quality hosting service, you will get better speed, better support and better demand fulfillment. Search for a hosting company that satisfies the individual needs of your business.
