When
seconds are just too long...
It's
a problem we have all experienced. It's
surprising just how often it happens.
We type in a www address in our internet
browser (Internet Explorer, etc.) or click
a link and wait for the webpage to appear
on our screen. We wait... we wait longer...
we wait even longer... we finally run
out of patience and go to another website.
Which website is going to get your business?
What
happened? Why did the webpage take so
long to appear and cause the first website
to lose the sale?
Three
common causes:
1.
Slow website host
- wherever the website is stored, the
systems that serve it up to you are
very slow. Remedy: ask your host how
to speed it up or move to a new faster
host. Preferably one that comes recommended.
2.
The ISP (Internet Service Provider)
- the delay is at the webpage viewers
end. Remedy: they either need to upgrade
their connection or move to a faster
ISP. Ask friends and colleagues for
a recommendation and see it working
well before changing.
3.
Design error! -
The website's individual webpages are
heavily weighed down with big files,
typically image files, and it slows
everything down to a crawl. Remedy:
Hire someone to reduce those file sizes
and optimise your webpages.
There
is one other thing to consider too.
If your computer is outdated or low
specification it may be causing those
delays too. If its more than say three
years old or so it may be time to upgrade
or replace it.
As
you can see there are several systems
working silently in the background to
enable you to view webpages and websites.
Any one of them can affect how quickly
or slowly those pages appear on your
screen. So, if you are the website provider,
how long is an acceptable time for your
potential customers to wait for a webpage
to appear? Well, between 1 and 20 seconds
really. The nearer 1 second you are
the better. The nearer 20 seconds or
over you are the more urgently you need
to do something. You are probably already
losing potential customers from that
delay. They won't wait around, they'll
be off to buy from another faster website.
Now,
you may be thinking what does 20 seconds
matter? In the internet world its a
loooong time. Often when you go to a
website you look at several pages within
that site and you want to do it quickly
and easily. Multiply that 10 or 20 second
delay before the page appears by the
number of pages youre going to view.
Phew... that's a lot of waiting around
and frustration in a world where seconds
count.
The
success of Google (www.google.com),
an internet search tool, is in the news
this week. Why are they so successful?
Their searches are excellent and they've
been able to cash in on the back of
that. Time is an important function
of those excellent searches. I just
did a random search on Google and they
returned a whopping 12,700,000 results
in, wait for it, 0.32 seconds. Wow!
They're very effective and very fast.
Its so easy to use them to search the
internet. If you had to wait twenty
seconds or more for their searches would
you bother? No, you'd go to another
website thats much quicker.
Your
website must work quickly and on a range
of connection speeds - namely dial-up
and broadband. You don't have to match
the speed of Google but below 10 or
ideally below 5 seconds would serve
you well and give your business a significant
advantage.
Its
a pretty basic thing to get right but
you must get it right. The conclusion
of this article? Its simple. None of
these problems are difficult to fix,
in fact they are easy. Delays cause
potential customers frustration and
cost you sales and income. If you want
your business to do well online do whatever
is necessary to rectify the situation.
And do it fast!
Good
luck as always!
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