The world’s websites have come a long way since their rudimentary designs in the early 2000s. Today, they are more visual and dynamic thanks to media files such as videos and photos. Web developers can create pages using various languages and styles.
An eye-candy site, though, doesn’t guarantee a converting or profitable page. One reason is speed.
Why Speed Matters
Page speed refers to how fast the site appears on your screen (whether it’s a desktop or mobile). The number has been changing throughout the years. For now, experts believe that the ideal speed is two to three seconds. Anything more can hurt your business in many ways.
1. A Slower Download Speed Can Cause Cart Abandonment
Every event of cart abandonment is one lost customer and revenues. Unfortunately, potential buyers might leave when page speed is slow. According to KISSMetrics, 47% expected websites to load within 2 seconds. About 40% will leave a site if the loading time takes for over 3 seconds.
After customers would wait for 2 to 3 seconds, their customer satisfaction declined by 16% for every 1-second delay. Over 40% were more likely to share their bad experiences online.
2. Page Speed Is a Ranking Factor
Search engines, especially Google, continue to tweak their algorithms to deliver the most accurate answer to a query or search. These changes are the reasons they can differentiate apple the fruit and Apple the tech brand.
Google, though, contains billions of pages. To deliver the best results, they rank these sites according to many factors. Page speed is one of them.
What Is Content Delivery Network (CDN)?
Also known as CDN, a content delivery network refers to a group of strategically located servers that can hold cache to speed up the downloading of content. Amazon CDN services are one of the famous examples.
To understand this further, you need to learn what goes on in website creation and optimization. A website contains many parts and files all stored in a server, which is a big machine that runs 24/7.
When people search for a site like yours, the servers “download” these files or assets and deliver these to the users. It might seem like a long process, but it takes seconds—for nations with excellent IT infrastructure.
In reality, not all countries have a fantastic Internet connection. The distance in which data have to travel can also affect download or page speed.
To solve this, you can use a CDN. Imagine it as repositories of information located in different parts of the world. Your assets stay there, ready for delivery to users. When someone tries to access the site, the platform, like Amazon CDN, then reroute the person to the edge location with the lowest latency.
That’s not all. CDNs can also support APIs, which means web developers can customize them according to their needs and objectives. Since the platform stores your files in different edge locations, the chances of users seeing an error page decline.
Overall, CDN services can improve user experience by speeding up the delivery of much-needed content.
