Web Site Optimization: Maximum Website Performance

Web site optimization produces highly competitive web sites that out-perform on every measure; traffic, speed, conversion rates, sell-throughs, and, most importantly, return on your investment.

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Velocity 2010 Web Performance Conference

I just got back from the Velocity 2010 Web Performance and Operations Conference in Santa Clara, California. Now in its third year, the conference is a must-see if you are a web performance or network operations engineer. And engineers were aplenty this year, the conference was sold out with more than 1500 attendees.

By Website Optimization on June 29, 2010

Page Speed Factored into Google Search Rankings

Google has incorporated the speed of a web page into its search engine rankings. While
this new signal currently affects only a small percentage of US sites, Google’s announcement officially links performance with search engine marketing.

By Website Optimization on April 11, 2010

PNG24 and PNG Optimization – learn how to optimize PNG files for smooth alpha transparency and small file size

Over 60% of the file size of the average web page is taken up by graphics and multimedia. So graphics optimization is an important step in optimizing web page speed. At an alarming frequency, we have seen large PNG24 and unoptimized JPEGs used on the Web. Large PNG24s should be optimized for file size or converted to PNG8s. This article shows how to optimize PNG files effectively by minimizing their color palettes, and using alpha transparency intelligently.

By Website Optimization on March 31, 2010

Anatomy of a Redesign

WebsiteOptimization.com was designed by the author in 2002, in the age of slower dial-up modems. The design was starting to show its age, so we’ve been quietly working on a redesign to improve the look and conversion rate. This article shows how we redesigned the site, and some of the techniques we used to achieve our goals.

By Website Optimization on January 23, 2010

Memory Markers and the Subjective Duration of Experience – consumer recall of the duration of rich and impoverished experiences in cognitive psychology

Online marketing has evolved from selling products to creating engaging experiences for consumers. New research shows that how long these experiences seem to last, however, depends on how rich the experience and time of recall (Ahn, Liu, and Soman 2009). The “memory marker” model helps explain this phenomenon and the time distortion that some people experience during and after immersive online flow experiences. Web developers need to balance the need to create rich online experiences with tolerable download times and scant distractions.

By Website Optimization on October 13, 2009

HTTP Compression – content encoding can compress xhtml, css, and javascript for faster web page download times web compression

HTTP compression, otherwise known as content encoding, is a publicly defined way to compress textual content transferred from web servers to browsers. HTTP compression uses public domain compression algorithms, like gzip and compress, to compress XHTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other text files at the server. This standards-based method of delivering compressed content is built into HTTP 1.1, and most modern browsers that support HTTP 1.1 support ZLIB inflation of deflated documents. In other words, they can decompress compressed files automatically, which saves time and bandwidth.

By Website Optimization on September 22, 2009

Web Page Performance Thesis – web page response time measurement, modeling and monitoring

For his doctoral thesis at the University of Glasgow, Thiam Kian Chiew studied web page performance. As part of his research, Chiew explored the different factors that affect web page speed, testing and modeling the key components to web page download times. His findings are summarized below.

By Website Optimization on July 31, 2009

Usability Study: Men Need Speed – web usability criteria show gender differences

The importance of download speed, for most Web users, has long been established (King 2008). Fast response times foster higher flow states (Skadberg & Kimmel 2004), higher conversion rates (Akamai 2007), higher perceived trustworthiness (Nielsen 1999), and lower user frustration (Ceaparu et al. 2004). But, previous research has also found that differences in gender, age and computer self-efficacy can moderate user priorities. This article explores the differences among men and women in their desire for speed.

By Website Optimization on April 28, 2009

Study: Web Users Prefer Speed Over Customization

Web users want site designs to be both easy to use and helpful, as prior human-computer interaction (HCI) studies have shown. But most such studies haven’t ranked interface design features in achieving these objectives. Since this knowledge can positively impact site design or re-design, this article will ask and answer the question – is there a single interface design feature that maximizes both user goals; usability and utility? If so, how important is this feature compared to others?

By Website Optimization on March 31, 2009

Offload Resource Intensive Scripts to Improve Server Performance

In a previous speed tweak we showed how upgrading our web server to a solid state drive and faster processors improved response times by 35% to 50%. With the Web Page Analyzer on the same server, the average response time was 11.87 seconds with typical response times after ramp-up ranging from 23 to 36 seconds. While this was an improvement over the old server, there were still response time and availability issues caused by hosting the analyzer script on the same server. This article shows how offloading a resource intensive script can dramatically improve your server response times.

By Website Optimization on January 31, 2009