Speed is a feature

Fri, Dec 12, 2008 Posted By:Eric Friedman

Marketing.fm, Technology

Speed is most definitely a feature you should be thinking about.

As the barriers to entry to start and launch a web service continue to decline, there are few things that can really set you apart. Although you may not think about it, the speed behind services you use everyday play a major role in your web usage.

This post from Robert Scoble got me thinking again today how much speed comes up when discussing and using web services.

Speed does not only affect end user behavior of how they think about your service, but also can have a monetary impact on how your SEM campaign is performing as speed is directly tied to your quality score now within Google AdWords

If you want to test out your site you can use a service like this or start tracking it on a monthly basis to really get at the issues using a service such as Pingdom. Thinking about speed of load times and search queries is important from the beginning.

Sales usually solves all problems, but having fast page load times can help too.

On another note I recently upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress 2.7 and wow is it faster. I have been using Wordpress for years, and this release is an order of magnitude improvement over the last release. Is this a reflection of my host? Wordpress code? ISP speed? a combination? The point is that lowering the possibility of the pain point coming from your page or software makes end users that much more happy – and will speed them up in telling others about your awesome product.

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This post was written by:

Eric Friedman - who has written 647 posts on Eric Friedman – Marketing.fm.

Analyst at Union Square Ventures, blogger at www.marketing.fm and operating experience within SEM, SEO, and Social Media. You should follow me on twitter @EricFriedman

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  • It's a very interesting point. The balance between attractive graphics and speed of a site loading is obviously a big consideration. Thank you for the update.
  • Mike
    Have to admit your site loads much faster now than before which has kept me away for months and randomly checked your site today and noticed the load time was actually ok
  • Thanks for coming back :)

    Have you tried subscribing to the feed? Syndicating content is a way to not have to rely on my server load times
  • This is a great point - Facebook and MySpace are two of the slowest sites on the web. They're so feature rich, but the core features are all that really matter -- and they are SO slow. You'd think they would carve out bandwidth for the basics - but they don't.
  • I think they do - but do not boil it down to the weakest link in the chain
    and fix it. They look at the macro items and say look "progress"
  • Hear! Hear! As a Web performance consultant and follower of online marketing and advertising, speed is one of the key factors that affects WoM and site reputation.

    If you go to a site to learn something about a product you are interested in, and the page doesn't load, your impression is...?

    Network performance, user experience, and the idea that performance extends beyond nice clean measurements in datacenters is key to getting a feel of how you present yourself to the public. Add in site design and content, and you have an entire package.
  • Your impression of a site that doesn't load directly impacts the company
    behind it. Although it might not even be their fault...which is why
    choosing solid providers early on is so important. Rarely do companies have
    to deal with MILLIONS of users early on, but they must think in that
    direction from the beginning so they have a reason to reach that level.

    Many services have lost my attention because of latency problems and it is
    certainly a reason NOT to come back.
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