Web Worker Daily recently brought up how some local Internet providers are looking to meter users bandwidth. What this basically means is that you are (usually) given a base amount of data you can transfer per month, then for each additional unit, usually gigabytes, they charge you an additional fee.

If you have a website, you are probably aware of this yourself. You can have so much traffic, and additional traffic creates an additional charge. We’ve discussed in the past how you will want to be careful of your site design as it will affect your charges.

Now, you need an efficient site because not only will it cost you more if you don’t, but it will cost your customers more. And they will not like that. If they start telling their friends it will generate the type of publicity you don’t need.

So make your site fast, cheap to host, and cheap to view.

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We’ve talked in the past about optimizing your web site so it runs a quickly as possible. This is nice of course as no one wants to wait for your pages to load. And with so many people having high-speed internet access, people’s desire to wait has gone down. (High speed access isn’t a license to triple your page size!)

We’ve also pointed out how Google is using your page load time now as a factor for where to rank your “pay-per-click” adwords ads.

Well now a new survey has come out that says that many (about 35%) of the people who don’t have high-speed internet, choose to not have. They don’t see the need for the speed, or higher costs.

So when you are sitting at your office, or home, and zipping along on you web page, remember that a large number of people will see your site load 3 to 5 times slower. So if that 10 or 20 second load time is driving you nuts, remember that others might see it in 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

If you want to know how your page responds to a variety of users, feel free to give me a call. I would be more than happy to offer a free consultation on how to improve your website.

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