Page Size and Load Time

Update: If you are using WordPress, I have written what I think is the most comprehensive tutorial on optimizing PageSpeed for WordPress sites. Give it a read.

A key site design consideration is how big your page is since that will have a direct affect on how quickly it loads in visitors’ browsers. Slow load times are a primary cause of people abandoning a site prematurely. Below are some useful tools to help you determine your page size and corresponding load time.

• The Pingdom Tools – Full Page Test loads a complete HTML page including all objects (images, CSS, JavaScripts, RSS, Flash and frames/iframes). It mimics the way a page is loaded in a web browser. The load time of all objects is shown visually with time bars. You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file. Every test also shows general statistics about the loaded page such as the total number of objects, total load time, and size including all objects.
• Web Page Analyzer – Enter a URL below to calculate page size, composition, and download time. The script calculates the size of individual elements and sums up each type of web page component. Based on these page characteristics the script then offers advice on how to improve page load time.

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