Hi guys,

 

Wondered if anybody could help me understand Pingdoms speedtest results please.

 

results:

This specific test was done on April 13 at 11:28:58 from Amsterdam, Netherlands. The web page took 2.44 s to load, used 85 requests, and weighed in at 860.9 kB.

 

The Google Page Speed performance grade for this web page is 86/100

 

Thoughts and Opinions are most welcome. Is this a good or bad result?

 

Thanks

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by jamesosix

It's OK. 86/100 suggests you could be doing better. Your results also prove it's not always about page size, but other factors too such as requests.

 

Could you post the result so I can see more detail?

 

I generally aim for around the one second mark, as I feel if it's a second for me than the slowest it's likely to be anywhere in the world is maybe 2/3 seconds. Whereas if it's 2.5 seconds for me, then somewhere else, or on mobile, it's gonna be kinda slow, maybe 5/6 seconds.

85 requests is pretty heavy. Consider some or all of the following:

 

• Combine images into sprites
  
• Where possible, replace images with CSS
  
• Combine and minify your Javascript, and move it to the footer for a reduction in perceived & real load times
  
• Combine your CSS
  

 

Edit: aim for scores in this sort of ballpark. Examine the waterfall table to see what's taking up the most time.

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by Renaissance-Design

It's OK. 86/100 suggests you could be doing better. Your results also prove it's not always about page size, but other factors too such as requests.

 

Could you post the result so I can see more detail?

 

I generally aim for around the one second mark, as I feel if it's a second for me than the slowest it's likely to be anywhere in the world is maybe 2/3 seconds. Whereas if it's 2.5 seconds for me, then somewhere else, or on mobile, it's gonna be kinda slow, maybe 5/6 seconds.

 

It is a very old and heavy site. Tables and everything.

http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/cNVQB2zgP/http://www.rightpricefurniture.co.uk

 

The site gets around 50000 unique visits per month, and 8000 mobile visits, so site speed should be considered, if not just for the mobile users eh?

 

85 requests is pretty heavy. Consider some or all of the following:

 

• Combine images into sprites
  
• Where possible, replace images with CSS
  
• Combine and minify your Javascript, and move it to the footer for a reduction in perceived & real load times
  
• Combine your CSS
  

 

Edit: aim for scores in this sort of ballpark. Examine the waterfall table to see what's taking up the most time.

Sound advice, thanks. I will put it to the 'powers that be'.

 

Does the sites current load time make a real difference to converting visits to sales do you think? I only ask, because its not my site, its a clients who we market and I am just trying to look at all things to improve the sales.

 

 

 

Please dear god ignore the horrendous design. A re-design is a no go right now sadly

 

+1 to you both. Cheers for the feedback

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by jamesosix

I can't help but comment, they sell furniture some of which looks absolutely beautiful and top notch....yet presented on a very, very cheap looking website. I know this is kind of an irrelevant comment....it just makes me sad for some reason haha.

 

I note a server response time of over a second. Sounds like the hosting is a little sluggish. Though, for me, the site loaded fine.

I can't help but comment, they sell furniture some of which looks absolutely beautiful and top notch....yet presented on a very, very cheap looking website. I know this is kind of an irrelevant comment....it just makes me sad for some reason haha.

 

I note a server response time of over a second. Sounds like the hosting is a little sluggish. Though, for me, the site loaded fine.

 

 

All the image work is done by myself (the slides etc), but I quite agree with you. The site is about 2 years old and we all know how much the web has changed over them years. The site is very dated, and the quality of furniture is top notch, and our biggest gripe is that the website does not really convey that premium quality, regardless of how shiny and smooth the images are.

 

I will have a look at Chris's suggestions to improve the site speed, but like I said a re-design is definitly out of the question right now.

 

Cheers Mike

Can I ask why a re-design is out of the question? Not to be nosy - just curious.

They just dont see it being cost effective. They are making sales, so they dont see it as much of an issue like us like minded designers do, as far as we can tell.

 

It has been suggested a few times and always declined.

 

Ohwell No worries, thanks for helping me with the site speed stuff. Just wanted to get a good understanding of what the speed was and its impact and whether it can be improved. I was expecting the results to be worse tbh, so I am quite satisfied there is no underlying speed issues.

 

Its not perfect and improvements can be made, but its a lot better than I anticipated.

 

Cheers

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by jamesosix

They just dont see it being cost effective. They are making sales, so they dont see it as much of an issue like us like minded designers do, as far as we can tell.

 

 

Ok, so they're making sales. Any site, no matter how bad, can't help making sales - but they could be making far more if their site performed better and was easier to navigate, and the quality of their branding was consistent with the quality of their products.

 

Nearly 1 in 6 hits is mobile - that would send me scrambling to do something to accommodate mobile visitors by making the site faster (and probably responsive too).

I always find the "but we're already making money" argument strange. Yes - but if your site was re-designed, you could make so much more?!

Ok, so they're making sales. Any site, no matter how bad, can't help making sales - but they could be making far more if their site performed better and was easier to navigate, and the quality of their branding was consistent with the quality of their products.

 

Nearly 1 in 6 hits is mobile - that would send me scrambling to do something to accommodate mobile visitors by making the site faster (and probably responsive too).

Yeah I know. I agree with you both and if it was my site I would sink a small fortune into it, making it responsive, clean, easy to use and fast.

 

What can you do eh?

 

It has actually had a few updates here and there (the slider is only recent for example) - but we all know the site needs a major re-design and the brand needs to be worked on, but as said, thats a no go right now.

 

I always find the "but we're already making money" argument strange. Yes - but if your site was re-designed, you could make so much more?!

 

Agreed, maybe its a financially fragile time (big companies going bust left, right and center. Maybe the company see it as a risk and dont wanna risk it, which I understand, but a small investment is needed, whether its now, or a year down the line from now. Either way, it will need to be done sooner or later.

 

Cheers for the help fella's appreciated as always!

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by jamesosix

Yeah I know. I agree with you both and if it was my site I would sink a small fortune into it, making it responsive, clean, easy to use and fast.

 

What can you do eh?

 

Present figures. Business owners like to see concrete figures saying if they do X, conversions will increase by Y.

 

Their bounce rate will be a good one. Plot their growth in mobile vs traditional traffic over the last few years and compare mobile vs desktop bounce rates. Identify weak points in their current design - if they're losing a lot of people at checkout, that gives you a chance to quantify how much more they'd make if they only lost half that number.

 

I bet the figures you can show them for lost customers will far outstrip the cost of the redesign.

Edited April 13, 201214 yr by Renaissance-Design