Speed matters from end-user experience through to your ability to generate revenue. There are three sides to any business website's performance, and it doesn't just help to throw hardware at the problem. Let's look at how “slow” hurt your profits and what to do about it.
If you're still not convinced that page speed is a user benefit that increases traffic and revenue from your business website, at least you can agree performance can be a hot issue among development teams.
How A Faster Business Website Can Be Achieved
In most environments a slow website is blamed on hosting, then hosting would blame the database team, who would in turn blame coding. Of course, the development certainly didn't make any mistakes, so it must be hosting and the endless circle of blame begins again.
In client environments I've seen this “endless circle of blame” cost weeks of productive effort, money flushed down the toilet because nobody wants to take responsibility.
That's why as a consultant, I'm not always the most welcome individual, but I'll get focus on fixing the issue. Here's why you now have no excuses, because …
Every team missed the big picture, they are all part of a larger system, a system with many “moving” pieces. If you want a faster business website or application, then sit down and understand that all three may be at fault. (Here's a simplified look at your environment.)
Three sides to slow websites:
- Hosting. Includes performance of your server, bandwidth to and from that server, and overall load. Look at memory availability, any faults, and disk performance.
- Database. Database server load, types of requests, and how those requests are performed can all influence performance. But it might not be the database alone.
- Coding. How logic is implemented, alogorythms for making decisions, and how code is reused, all influence program performance.
The most important question to ask is, “What parts contribute to the results my visitor wants?” Once you've identified parts, then systematically take measures of timing and alliteration. Optimizing your business website takes a bit of time, but here's how you make it all worthwhile.
After the regular engineering approach of documenting and timing each element of your site (three columns: function, time in routine, alliteration), then add a business element … dollars. Even if you don't have a strict commerce site, focus first on those parts of your site that could faster bring you sales.
Now is the time to bring your teams together, help them understand the monetary factors that influence improvement. Let the “endless circle of blame” stop with you. After all, spending hours blaming each other costs much more than clearing out quick performance improvements while tuning in on profits.
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Would a faster, more uniform end-user experience put money in your pocket? In most cases, your business website performance influences purchase and lead generation, you could be losing sales with a slow website. Contact us to learn how smart companies are increasing sales and lowering costs.