Web Page Size
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There have been major debates about web page size. Graphic designers feel they need to load up web pages with fancy graphics or Flash presentations. Internet marketing specialists have argued that web page size should be kept to a minimum. The web page size is a sum of all images, external files and HTML.
"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog."
- Dwight Eisenhower
Eisenhower was, of course, talking about the size of a person or an army. However, we can take that view and apply it to web page size. The size of a web page should be small enough to download extremely quickly on a dial-up connection. Fast delivery, like fast delivered pizza, is most appreciated and goes a long way toward good customer service.
| Domain | HTML (in bytes) | JavaScript (in bytes) | CSS (in bytes) | Images (in bytes) | Total Weight (in bytes) | Download Time on 56k Modem (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Pie Shopping Cart | 8171 | 3853 | 6968 | 18992 | 3.99 | |
| 1190 | 8558 | 9748 | 1.94 | |||
| Yahoo | 7276 | 30546 | 37822 | 7.54 | ||
| Amazon | 63206 | 95586 | 158792 | 31.65 | ||
| MSN | 37991 | 3494 | 13944 | 35963 | 91392 | 18.61 |
| Blue Nile | 26866 | 56279 | 83145 | 16.57 | ||
| Web Pro World | 39465 | 2782 | 32375 | 47069 | 121691 | 24.85 |
| Green Dragon Herbals | 6610 | 884 | 28259 | 35753 | 7.33 |
When I was still teaching web design and accessibility, I was always asked how large a web page should be. My standard answer was "the size of a web page with all images should be no more than 50kb. Anything larger than that can seriously impede the download speed of a web page.
However, the question a web designer should ask is "how small can I make my page?" As pointed out above, the smaller the page weight the faster the page will load. Amazingly there is an inverse relationship between the size of the web page and the speed of the connection. This fact does not change whether you see a physical representation or not. Dial-up connections simply exaggerate the problem.
Important of Web Page Size
Over the past few years online marketing specialists have performed surveys regarding web pages size. Jakob Nielson's Alertbox The Need for Speed points out that web site users want web pages that download fast and the majority of Internet users are still on dial-up. If the page is slow in loading the next site is only a click away.
Flash entry pages end up directing people to click on the "skip intro" link or lead them to leave. There is nothing a Flash entry page can offer except to act as a barrier to strong web site performance. If you're the average web site visitor, like me, you'll notice yourself clicking the "skip intro" link and if it isn't available you'll leave.
Images used for navigation buttons and, especially, rollover images increase the weight of the web page and decrease the performance of the web page. CSS enables the same effects without all the additional weight from different images.
Your visitors want your information served to them as quickly as possible. Making them wait starts the business to customer relationship off poorly. Your web site will never get another opportunity to make a good first impression so don't let the web page size hurt that opportunity.
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