Are You Losing Online Sales Due To Page Loading Delays?

Yancey Foster

You could be, according to this article.

Slashdot | 4 Seconds Loading Time Is Maximum For Websurfers

"Akamai and JupiterResearch have conducted a study among 1,000 online shoppers and have found, among other results, that one third of respondents have, at one point, left a shopping website because of the overall 'poor experience.' 75% of them do not intend ever to come back to this website again. Online shopper loyalty also increases as loading time of webpages decreases."

Do you consider page loading times when building a site?

Jason Moffatt · 11-08-2006, 09:42 PM

I just got done stripping some graphics and
other stuff off a sales page for that exact
reason.

Tom Jones · 11-09-2006, 10:10 AM

Very true.

This has been the case since the beginning of the Internet.

Do not assume everyone has broadband because you do. According to Jackob Nielsen, in his January 2004 update, assuming penetration rates continue as they are, full penetration of broadband won't occur until 2011!

I always consider loading times when building a website. Fast loading speed definitely cultivates trust amongst users.

Below you'll find a few guidelines from Jackob Nielsen The Need for Speed (Alertbox March 1997)

Quote:

The most important issue in response time is when the user gets to see a screenful of useful information. It matters less if it takes longer to load the full page and all its illustrations if the user can start acting on some information fast.

Guidelines for fast initial loading are:

the top of the page should be meaningful even when no images have been downloaded (i.e., more text, less images).

use ALT attributes for images so that the user can understand what they are about before they are rendered.

the browser must draw the top of the page fast: it can only do so if it has all the information it will need for layout, so include WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes on all images and table columns

complex tables often take a long time to render, so cut down on the complexity of your tables by splitting the information into several tables. In particular, the top table should be simple and fast to render.

The quote above was from 1997, but still relevant. He mentions cascading style sheets (CSS), which you should all be using, I do. They won't impact on your page download speed.

Best Wishes,

Tom

Ken_Calhoun · 07:15 PM

on the other hand, my salesletter I wrote at:

Stock Trading Success System: (Give it 2 mins to load - lots of video!) The Ultimate Multimedia Stock Trading System

just did over $183,000 in sales in it's first 4 weeks of launch for my colleague and I, and it takes *forever* to friggin load.

I even have the page titled (give it 2 mins to load) so people know they've gotta wait.

so I don't care how long my pages take to load, as long as they SELL, baby.

if they're impatient, screw em, they're not my target market anyways. my target market is fanatically loyal house list folks who've been with me for years and know to expect insane load times, mega headlines, and killer content that's worth 20x the paltry $1K they've gotta pony up to get their hands on it..

kinda like Dan Kennedy said about an example of a direct mail guy, forgot his name, decades ago, that wrote his ad copy in tiny 6-point font that wrapped around the postcards etc... If they WANT it, they'll MAKE the time and trouble to read it.

Salesmanship & quality content trumps every time. takin' it to the bank, bigtime.

In fact I should put more hurdles in their way, like IQ tests, so I don't get idiot aol customers. for example. lol

Since my customers have flown in from around the world to hear me at my rare biannual trading seminars, they'll certainly wait for a salesletter to load. sheesh. I've you've got big brass sales balls like I do, you win. End of story.

Ken

p.s. I just bought a new 55" sony wega widescreen tv, and another 32" lcd one for the bedroom, they're great. I can watch my copywriting and marketing dvds on them: Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy, Michel Fortin, John Carlton... and of course the 'america's castles' ones, for wealth nlp visual anchoring.

I wanted Yanik's mercedes, but it was a 2-seater and my family would squawk. Great car though.

I'm gonna have a 70-room mansion/castle. My current 4,000 sft colorado estate house is cute, but not big enough for me and my ego. (lol). I had to bold it, that's my best written line o the day. The trick is, how SOON. I don't want to be 65 before I get it. That would be easy. I'm 42. Challenge is, the castle by 48, type of thing. It's a beat the clock to wealth personal challenge.

I want something like Trump's Mar-a-Lago in San Diego, or one of the Vanderbilt mansions. I'll have one. Question is, how quickly. Thats' the trick. Time. I bought a king's hat today, and a faberge gold egg replica. Wealth anchors. getting there. it's all about conditioning and nlp. gotta go read some more bandler now..

John Ritz · 11-09-2006, 07:32 PM

You crack me up, Ken!

But good points. It all depends on how qualified your visitors are. If they're highly qualified enough, they'll read 6 point fonts or wait HOURS for it to load (I've left my PC and come back later when the video's finished loaded to watch it in some cases).