For most things, 2 seconds is nothing in terms of waiting time, but when it comes to website load times 2 seconds is an eternity. This wasn’t always the case of course. In the days of dial-up, website users got used to the slow crawl of a website as it slowly unveiled its content. Then Broadband came along and the paradigm shifted dramatically.
Today, if a use has to wait more than 2 seconds for a website to load, they are off to the races—searching for the next available site that hopefully meets their rather impatient expectations. A staggering 47% of users demand that sites load in under 2 seconds. Webmasters who wants to appease visitors therefore, have to work hard at making this 2 second rule a part of their strategy. But its not just web users, search engines like Google expect fast loafing sites too–anything less and a site’s rankings will suffer.
The benefits of adopting this strategy are also very profound. According to a new study, a load time of more than 2 seconds can affect conversions (the action that the visitor must take) by more than 7%. And when you consider that online conversion rates for any type of sales action is not normally above 3%, a 7% slip in user engagement can affect the bottom line in a dramatic way. Luckily for webmasters though, the technology to accommodate such impatience exists, so there really should be no excuses for a page that takes an eternity of 2 seconds to load, right?
Are you part of the 2 seconds crowd? Let us know your threshold for waiting in the comments below.
Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2011/11/24/47-of-people-expect-websites-to-load-in-under-2-seconds/
Today, if a use has to wait more than 2 seconds for a website to load, they are off to the races—searching for the next available site that hopefully meets their rather impatient expectations. A staggering 47% of users demand that sites load in under 2 seconds. Webmasters who wants to appease visitors therefore, have to work hard at making this 2 second rule a part of their strategy. But its not just web users, search engines like Google expect fast loafing sites too–anything less and a site’s rankings will suffer.The benefits of adopting this strategy are also very profound. According to a new study, a load time of more than 2 seconds can affect conversions (the action that the visitor must take) by more than 7%. And when you consider that online conversion rates for any type of sales action is not normally above 3%, a 7% slip in user engagement can affect the bottom line in a dramatic way. Luckily for webmasters though, the technology to accommodate such impatience exists, so there really should be no excuses for a page that takes an eternity of 2 seconds to load, right?
Are you part of the 2 seconds crowd? Let us know your threshold for waiting in the comments below.
Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2011/11/24/47-of-people-expect-websites-to-load-in-under-2-seconds/