Comments on: The Importance of Site Performance http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/ #1 Subscribed Ecommerce Blog Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:07:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Drew http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19679 Drew Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:54:30 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19679 @JakeFras - Aptimize looks really cool. Too bad I don't see much support for the java stack, but i didn't read to far into the website. A poor person's version that I've run into in the java world is JAWR (https://jawr.dev.java.net), which keeps in mind the need for keeping UI optimized files maintainable for the devs/designers. @JakeFras – Aptimize looks really cool. Too bad I don’t see much support for the java stack, but i didn’t read to far into the website.

A poor person’s version that I’ve run into in the java world is JAWR (https://jawr.dev.java.net), which keeps in mind the need for keeping UI optimized files maintainable for the devs/designers.

]]> By: JakeFras http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19677 JakeFras Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:49:35 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19677 @Linda - agreed, the big sites e.g. Shopzilla, Amazon, Google, Yahoo etc get it; they have teams of people dedicated to shaving even miliseconds off page load time, yet the vast majority of us have no idea that our webpages appear at different speeds for different visitors. I guess its not surprising that this 'problem' is largely unknown because most of us assume that people's speed experience of our web pages is the same as our own - if our site is fast for me its fast for everyone, right? Wrong. In reality, the further the distance between where a website is hosted and the visitor, the longer it takes for a page to load. Web performance is all about reducing that page load time over distance using various techniques. To be honest I knew zero about web performance until about 2 years ago but I get it now - and I am a business analyst and not a developer or engineer. If you're looking to 'dip your toe' in this subject the Akamai webinar would be a good place to start. @Linda – agreed, the big sites e.g. Shopzilla, Amazon, Google, Yahoo etc get it; they have teams of people dedicated to shaving even miliseconds off page load time, yet the vast majority of us have no idea that our webpages appear at different speeds for different visitors.

I guess its not surprising that this ‘problem’ is largely unknown because most of us assume that people’s speed experience of our web pages is the same as our own – if our site is fast for me its fast for everyone, right? Wrong. In reality, the further the distance between where a website is hosted and the visitor, the longer it takes for a page to load. Web performance is all about reducing that page load time over distance using various techniques.

To be honest I knew zero about web performance until about 2 years ago but I get it now – and I am a business analyst and not a developer or engineer. If you’re looking to ‘dip your toe’ in this subject the Akamai webinar would be a good place to start.

]]> By: Linda Bustos http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19675 Linda Bustos Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:58:26 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19675 @JakeFras, yes site performance is the hidden jewel in ecommerce optimization - hidden because we're usually looking at features/design elements when optimizing landing pages... @JakeFras, yes site performance is the hidden jewel in ecommerce optimization – hidden because we’re usually looking at features/design elements when optimizing landing pages…

]]> By: Linda Bustos http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19673 Linda Bustos Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:56:22 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19673 I tried to find it there, but couldn't. I have it in my notes from a Forrester slide deck, with credit to Gomez.com. I tried to find it there, but couldn’t. I have it in my notes from a Forrester slide deck, with credit to Gomez.com.

]]> By: Christian, Baymard Institute http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19671 Christian, Baymard Institute Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:59:48 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19671 @Linda, yes my point exactly. Do you have a link for the Gomez study? Was it in one of their case studies found here: http://www.gomez.com/resources/case-studies/ ? @Linda, yes my point exactly. Do you have a link for the Gomez study? Was it in one of their case studies found here: http://www.gomez.com/resources/case-studies/ ?

]]> By: http://www.besttiffanynow.co.uk http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19669 http://www.besttiffanynow.co.uk Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:57:21 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19669 Thank you for your sharing,I like this. Thank you for your sharing,I like this.

]]> By: JakeFras http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19667 JakeFras Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:55:32 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19667 The corporation I work for has 3 large ecommerce sites that sell internationally. It took me 12 months to get funding for web performance monitoring software but then my employers were finally able to grasp that our customers around the world were experiencing different page load times for our catalogue pages and this in turn was effecting abandonment rates and consequently sales. I recently read that when Shopzilla increased the speed of their website by 5 seconds it resulted in a 25% increase in page views, a 10% increase in revenue, a 50% reduction in hardware, and a 120% increase traffic from Google - that's crazy! How many of you use Adwords for leads? We do, we spend 10's of thousands on it. Did you know that landing page load time is an Adwords quality score factor? The slower your ad landing page loads the higher the ad rate you pay. Web performance is important. Early on in the year Steve Souders, Google's Web Performance guru mentioned a website accelerator by a company called Aptimize - this is what we implimented and it has made a significant difference to the page load speeds of our sites. Web performance is now taken very seriously where I work especially coming up to a holiday season. Great article and good to see this issue is being aired. The corporation I work for has 3 large ecommerce sites that sell internationally. It took me 12 months to get funding for web performance monitoring software but then my employers were finally able to grasp that our customers around the world were experiencing different page load times for our catalogue pages and this in turn was effecting abandonment rates and consequently sales.

I recently read that when Shopzilla increased the speed of their website by 5 seconds it resulted in a 25% increase in page views, a 10% increase in revenue, a 50% reduction in hardware,
and a 120% increase traffic from Google – that’s crazy!

How many of you use Adwords for leads? We do, we spend 10’s of thousands on it. Did you know that landing page load time is an Adwords quality score factor? The slower your ad landing page loads the higher the ad rate you pay. Web performance is important.

Early on in the year Steve Souders, Google’s Web Performance guru mentioned a website accelerator by a company called Aptimize – this is what we implimented and it has made a significant difference to the page load speeds of our sites. Web performance is now taken very seriously where I work especially coming up to a holiday season. Great article and good to see this issue is being aired.

]]> By: Linda Bustos http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19665 Linda Bustos Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:54:47 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19665 @Christian, yes this is also important and should be measured at the browser level too. I saw some research by Gomez that showed the actual load in IE and Firefox vs. perceived speed. IE was 5.335 s but perceived as 1.614. Firefox was actual 4.08 and perceived as 2.461! All depends on the browser, which objects it decides to load first, and whether they are the most important objects on the page. @Christian, yes this is also important and should be measured at the browser level too. I saw some research by Gomez that showed the actual load in IE and Firefox vs. perceived speed. IE was 5.335 s but perceived as 1.614. Firefox was actual 4.08 and perceived as 2.461! All depends on the browser, which objects it decides to load first, and whether they are the most important objects on the page.

]]> By: Linda Bustos http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19663 Linda Bustos Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:51:43 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19663 @Andy, there are tools like LoadRunner, JMeter, WebLoad or 3rd party monitoring/optimization services like Akamai and Gomez. Yes, would be interesting to hear what most online retailers use, and what Get Elastic readers use. @Andy, there are tools like LoadRunner, JMeter, WebLoad or 3rd party monitoring/optimization services like Akamai and Gomez. Yes, would be interesting to hear what most online retailers use, and what Get Elastic readers use.

]]> By: Linda Bustos http://www.getelastic.com/site-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-19661 Linda Bustos Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:47:06 +0000 http://www.getelastic.com/?p=5260#comment-19661 @Jon Schneider, yes my apologies I goofed on this and have issued a follow up correction post. Thanks. @Jon Schneider, yes my apologies I goofed on this and have issued a follow up correction post. Thanks.

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