Why Web Performance Optimization Matters

Web performance optimization is all about user experience. If you want to build your consumer base or invest in customer retention practices, you need to pay close attention to your web performance analytics to ensure you provide the apps and features that elevate the experience. How important is it? The BBC found that they half of the retail customers will only give a page three seconds to load before abandoning deployment. BBC also found that they lost a tenth of their viewers for every second a page took to load. If your business is web-based, performance is a vital component to lead conversion and revenue growth and offers the difference between being a top online seller and going out of business because of poor website usability.

Retaining Users

The same page visitor behavior study cited above shares data that are even more revealing. One very popular social networking site that shares a wide range of interests successfully increased traffic to their website and sign ups by as much as 15% when they decreased the wait times by 40%. Even cutting page load times by the milliseconds can have significant results. Such was the case for one cooking site where it successfully reduced its average load times by 800 milliseconds. The reduction of the website’s page loading time was enough to increase conversion rates by as much as 7%, cut down on visitors leaving the site by 7% and encourage more visitors to explore the website by as much as 10 percent.

As mentioned earlier, pages that took too long to load are at higher risk of losing the website visitor. In the study mentioned earlier, the BBC discovered that they lost as much as 10% of their visitors with every second it took for their page to display properly. Google conducted a study called DoubleClick and it revealed that sites that load faster than five seconds tend to have visitors who stayed on their longer. Such websites also had shorter bounce rates and as much as 25% ad views. Data from the same study also revealed that 53% of those using mobile devices would immediately leave a site with pages that fail to load within 3 seconds.

So what is the take away with these all these data? Fast page loading times is vital, but your pages should go beyond that. You’ll need to have other reasons for your page visitors to stay. If you are a social networking and idea-sharing site, you’ll want to encourage visitors to interact with each other. Online stores will want their visitors to buy something. Blogs on the other hand, should be designed to encourage their visitors to read the posts. To sum whatever has been said so far, fast loading times and engaging content translates to a positive overall user experience. For this reason, web optimization is essential in ensuring that your website remains competitive.

So how would you define “user experience?”

User Experience

Performance determines user experience as URL navigation begins the moment a consumer clicks on a web address. The device used to access a gaming page will greatly determine the type of experience they have since applications and resources are vital to accessibility and function. If the website is not using the web performance optimization tools, the connection quality will not be optimal as it must be for gaming distinction. If the loading time is slow, the user experience is yet even to be a factor since unresponsiveness is such a critical component.

Data Delivery Methods

The amount of data you expose your users to greatly affects performance level. An effective way to overcome this challenge is to do an application audit. Accessing a summary of network tools used on your web pages will ensure you are only using those that are necessary. You will be able to speed up your execution merely by removing pointless applications, images and video. You must balance critical tools with fun and aesthetically pleasing resources.

Delivery efficiency is also of vital importance. As newer HTTP-2 technology has made many of the original script batches unnecessary, you have the opportunity now to process concurrent requests as well as limit the number you use on each page. Moreover, your pages will only include the HTML elements necessary that your users will most likely utilize, which elevates web page performance, functionality, end-user satisfaction and consumer retention. Tips include:

  • Minimize text-based data
  • Compress configuration file formats
  • Reduce imagery on pages to speed up load times
  • Use video rather than GIFs to enhance performance
  • Optimize page accessibility for different device features
  • Monitor and modify APIs to overcome sluggish network connections

Prioritize Web Performance Optimization

Web performance optimization must always be a priority since there is any number of competitors on the internet that meets users’ needs. Downtime, slow page loading speeds or any number of deployment issues will drive your traffic elsewhere. Once you identify the issues that are disrupting performance, you will be able to make critical adjustments that deliver results.

Perform a Load Test

  • Apache JMeter is a leading load testing application designed to analyze and measure your website, network or server’s performance and functioning issues
  • WebLOAD is also a leading load testing resource designed to check website function and web applications; it also looks for vulnerabilities and scalability of web and mobile-friendly applications
  • Loadster is a cloud-load tester that is an appropriate tool for hardware or cloud-based applications as it looks for performance issues and blockages that deter routine app deployment or invalid responses

Test Your Website’s Speed

You must always know your website speed so that you will be able to identify performance, application and usage connection issues before your users do:

  • Pingdom speed test is a resource that performs several activities including load test, web analysis, speed and bottleneck identification
  • BlazeMeter is the best tool for scaling after performance testing is complete since it measures and validates the health of your applications
  • Google Page Speed Insights is an excellent resource elevating performance issue, speed and security vulnerabilities; once you receive your score, you have access to Google’s DNS to perform the needed response

If you use a hosting site, there are also plugins that will find the issues slowing down your site.

Web Performance Optimization Resources

There is any number of website performance optimization resources available. There are also many different changes you will be able to implement to elevate your page’s performance, speed and application delivery. By continuously analyzing your web pages, you also have the knowledge you need to implement new procedures that distribute consumer-friendly services.

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