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Speed Up Page Load Times W/ Mod_deflate
By Brian Thibault
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-02-14
In a report from November, 2006 Akamai and JupiterResearch concluded that 4 seconds is the threshold an online shopper is willing to wait for pages of the sites to load.
In addition:The report ranked poor site performance as second only to high product prices and shipping costs as leading factors for dissatisfaction among online shoppers.
Based on the feedback of 1,058 online shoppers that were surveyed during the first half of 2006, JupiterResearch offers the following analysis:
* The consequences for an online retailer whose site underperforms include diminished goodwill, negative brand perception, and, most important, significant loss in overall sales.
* Online shopper loyalty is contingent upon quick page loading, especially for high-spending shoppers and those with greater tenure. Fast load speed is essential to usability and accessibility. If you can't get your pages to load in 4 or less seconds, this study indicates you are losing a serious amount of visitors. Aside from optimizing code and image sizes there is a nifty little tool out there called MOD_DEFLATE.
Mod_deflate is a module you can plugin to your apache webserver to compress the data it sends out. Most of today's browsers uncompress the data as they receive it.
If you're using a browser that doesn't support compressed data, then apache will send the normal, uncompressed data stream. Using this does increase the load on the CPU load on the webserver, but sacrificing CPU for faster page loads and saved bandwidth is entirely worth it.
I'm pretty sure most shared hosting accounts use mod_gzip (the older version) or mod_deflate these days, but check with your hosting provider just to make sure.
If you're running your own webserver at home, at work, or at a colocation make sure mod_deflate is installed and operational.
It's been along time since I've had to install or upgrade an Apache webserver, so I'm not sure the exact procedure, but there are some good resources out there already.
If you're a web admin you probably are already familiar with installing modules for Apache, if you're not a web admin person then you'll probably have somebody else do it anyway.
Regardless, this should help you get started optimizing your page load times with mod_deflate: Howto Forge - Howto mod_deflate.
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About the Author:
Brian Thibault is an internet marketing guru specializing in E-commerce, SEO, and usability. He is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and enjoys his work, ice hockey, and exercise. Brian's blog can be found at http://www.convertup.com
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