A news article posted by the BBC today states that if a website takes longer than 4 seconds to load, shoppers will abandon it and move on.

A survey conducted by Akamai revealed that 75% of users questioned would not return to a website if it took longer than 4 seconds to load. This was half the time compared to the last survey conducted at the start of the internet shopping boom.

Now, that’s a bit scary when you think about it. 4 seconds is not a very long time at all.

What you can do to help improve website load time 

1. Make sure your images are properly optimised.
2. Make sure your code is as small as possible, avoid unnecessary page elements
3. Try to avoid using tables for the design of your website

With most people on broadband connections nowadays it’s not as bad a problem as it first seems,  but there are still quite a few users on dial-up.

Keep that in mind the next time you are designing a website.

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