Research by Google shows users put the highest importance on page load speed and the lowest importance on how attractive the site is.
53% of all site visits are abandoned if page load takes more than 3 seconds even on low powered mobile devices.
The average user device costs less than USD200
If a site takes more than 1 second to become interactive, users lose attention, and their perception of completing the page task is broken.
1MB takes a minimum of 5 seconds to download on a typical 3G connection.
Despite this, 19 seconds is the average time a mobile web page takes to load on a 3G connection. Read on to learn the reasons for slow loading sites and why appZuka sites are different.
The vast majority of websites are built using frameworks. These make building the site easy for the designer but start by adding a huge amount of code to your site which all needs to be downloaded and executed before the page can be shown.
Then the designer adds modules for each effect on the site such as menus, slideshows, forms. Most designers don't realise the impact of each module they add.
Before your first page is added the site has a huge amount of code which all has to be downloaded and processed for every page. Your content is like the tip of an iceberg with the vast framework beneath.
Users care about the content, not the design.
Here at appZuka, we don't use frameworks. The entire site is hand-coded so not a single byte is allowed onto your site unless it adds value.
Web designers work with very powerful desktop computers with lots of RAM, fast CPUs and super-fast broadband. They don't see the impact on mobile users of the modules they are adding to your web pages.
You can simulate a small screen just by making your browser window smaller. Simulating a low RAM, low CPU device on a mobile network requires more thought and most web designers today are not doing this.
Mobile devices have low RAM and CPU's designed to save battery life. If your page uses too much RAM the page will not just be slow to load - it will be killed by the device.
Web designers today have access to high-resolution images from stock photo libraries and pull in high-resolution images without considering the image on the page load time. The images on a typical site are responsible for the majority of the download time.
You can still have great images. We ensure the images are optimised so only the data necessary to show the image on the user's device is downloaded.
The page is displayed and becomes interactive as soon as the content is downloaded. Heavy images are replaced by placeholders and the rich image displays smoothly when it downloads to avoid a jarring user experience. Being smart gives the best of both worlds - a super fast site and rich images.
Don't forget other assets
The same applies to fonts. Rich font libraries allow designers to use many styles, sizes and weights of a font which will delay page loading. We only use lightweight fonts for the initial page load.
You can have both a fast loading website and also a large site with rich content.
Through hand coding, we can load only the content the user needs to see for the page they are viewing. Rich content is loaded after the initial page display.
The initial content includes placeholder images so the user does not perceive that the page loads slowly. They see a full page quickly with progressive, smooth enhancement. Users on desktop or powerful mobile devices see the rich page on the first load.
Contact us to discuss your website.
If you are interested in getting your own fast website click here to learn how: Web Design - Next Steps