Long waiting times are generally regarded as annoying.
Waiting for hours in waiting rooms, traffic jams or the sluggish loading of a website can be nerve-wracking.
However, there is a crucial difference between the three examples: waiting in reception rooms and traffic jams are familiar and more or less accepted, whereas with just one click the loading of a website can be canceled, which means that it will not be accessed again. This abandonment is the horror of any website operator whose goal is high user activity.
Every hundredth of a second longer or shorter loading time can have serious consequences. Excessively long load times can quickly cost sales. Even websites that take longer than 0.1 seconds to load are no longer perceived as “instant” by users. Mobile users are 74 percent likely to abandon a site if it takes longer than five seconds to load, according to web designer and author Brad Frost. (Brad Frost Website Performance).
Ein weiteres Exempel zeigt deutlich, wie wichtig Website Performance ist: Der Online-Versand Amazon büßt pro 100 Millisekunden zusätzlicher Ladezeit Umsätze von einem Prozent ein.
Für eine optimale Performance müssen folgende Kriterien beachtet werden.
- Performance through and through
When designing a website, performance must be considered from start to finish. This requires designers, technical designers and clients to work together. Subsequent performance optimization would achieve less good results.
For a successful website, good performance is elementary, because search engines also do not like to wait and evaluate long loading times as negative, which is also reflected in the ranking.
- Improve performance
How can you optimize for performance in the first place? Starting with the server and ending with the frontend framework, everything that is needed and loaded to display the actual website must be evaluated. Furthermore, various optimization measures can be taken, such as the integration of a content distribution network, minification or transfer via Gzip. In addition, analysis tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights or YSlow can be used to both test the loading times and obtain optimization suggestions.
- Keeping the mobile user in mind
The aforementioned mobile users increase the demands on website performance. Plagued by fluctuating Internet connections due to local conditions, other factors have a negative impact on performance. The needs of mobile users should also be increasingly addressed from an SEO perspective. Early prototyping and testing under realistic conditions are helpful for an initial assessment.
- Creative loading times
Anstatt den Nutzer während der Ladezeit nur auf einen Ladebalken starren zu lassen, können Sie diesen auch mit Ladeanimationen unterhalten. So können kritische Ladezeiten elegant überbrückt werden, wodurch der Nutzer im Idealfall sogar noch einen Mehrwert erhält. Für die User Experience ist es also wichtig, wie die Besucher die Wartezeit wahrnehmen.
In summary, it can be said that optimization with regard to loading times is more important than ever, as good performance has a positive impact on a number of areas such as user experience or search engine optimization. In order to ensure good performance, a performant solution must always be collectively strived for, from conception to design to implementation. Every website operator should pursue the goal of optimizing his website to this end.
Learn more about Website Performance: Internetworld – Website Performance
