Fast and furious: behind the website load race

How long can a website take to load before you start getting impatient?

Odds are that if the site doesn’t load immediately, you start getting antsy. Research has found that three seconds is the magic number – any longer, and visitors are likely to abandon the site.

Photo credit: Wes Hicks / Unsplash

Three seconds may be short, but not meeting this benchmark can have real consequences for a business. Search engine optimization takes a hit, as page speed plays a role in Google search rankings.

Website loading time also affects the user experience and has an impact on conversions. In a 2019 survey by landing page builder Unbounce, nearly 70% of respondents said that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from a retailer.

Load speed can be affected by a number of things, so it’s crucial that businesses focus on the factors they can control, such as their back-end systems.

That’s where cloud technologies come into the picture.

Up in the cloud

Everyone knows about cloud technology in this day and age, but what are the specific services that play a role in how fast a website loads and how quickly a user can access the information they need? Let’s unpack three of these solutions.

Content delivery networks

Content delivery networks (CDNs) are groups of servers placed in strategic locations around the world that store content close to end users, as defined by GeeksForGeeks, a resource platform for programmers and computer scientists.

Transmitting data is similar to sending a physical package – the further the end user is from the source, the longer it takes for the information to be received.

Think of CDNs as warehouses. Companies can store a copy of their website’s “static” content – such as cascading style sheets, text, and images – on servers in different regions. When users access the site, it can pull data from nearby servers, just like how a pair of shoes you bought online would be shipped out from the warehouse closest to you. This makes the website load faster, as the data doesn’t have to travel far.

“CDN services can help your website if you experience an influx of traffic,” wrote Haris Bacic, co-founder of publishing agency Bacic Media Group, in a piece for Forbes. “Due to the fact that they run large networks of servers, their resources are always scalable and available.”

Elastic load balancing

While CDNs help mitigate the likelihood of a server crash, they can’t do it alone.

Consider this scenario: When you first set up a website, you probably purchased a hosting plan on a particular server and called it a day. This is fine if just 100 people are accessing your site, but once that number goes up to 10,000, your server might get oversaturated. Users might face slowdowns, and the server might crash entirely.

Photo credit: Israel Andrade / Unsplash

If your website regularly experiences high traffic, the natural solution would be to get more servers. But if one of the servers gets overloaded, how do you direct users to the others?

This is where elastic load balancing (ELB) comes in.

“In simple terms, load balancers sit directly in front of your back-end servers and make decisions on routing all inbound traffic to the back-end servers,” shared Fahim Hossain, CEO of software development company Arits Limited, on LinkedIn. “This ensures efficient capacity utilization of resources.”

ELB also helps scale the servers up and down automatically. For example, if traffic is low, some servers can be switched off temporarily, saving costs.

One can think of ELB as the “next step” after CDNs. While CDNs help spread the load across different geographies, ELB balances that load across servers within a particular area, allowing the end user to get to where they want to be quickly.

Domain name system

The third piece of the puzzle lies with the “phonebook” of the internet – the domain name system (DNS). When you type a URL into your browser, like techinasia.com, that URL has to lead to an IP address so that you can access the site.

There’s a lot that goes into finding that IP address. In some cases, your device may be able to locate the IP address via your browser’s cache or your internet service provider’s name servers, especially if it’s a commonly visited URL.

However, if it’s a new site, getting this information often requires the request to pass through several servers. It’s a bit like finding a lost dog on the street and then going around the neighborhood to look for its owner.

Photo credit: Erik Mclean / Unsplash

“We kind of keep asking, going ‘door to door,’ and then we get the answer,” explained Michael Pound, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham, on Computerphile, the university’s computer science-focused YouTube channel.

Having multiple layers between typing in the URL and the site coming up on your screen slows down the load speed.

This is where DNS routing services can help. They help streamline the process by offering companies a way to manage how end users are routed to their sites, reducing the layers needed to find the right IP address.

To go back to the lost dog analogy, if the person who found the lost dog is the end user, then the dog’s owner would be the business running the website. DNS services would be the equivalent of the owner putting up “missing dog” posters with their contact details so that it’s easier to find them.

Laying the foundations

To sum it all up, DNS services shorten the time needed to go from typing in the URL to accessing the right IP address, and CDNs ensure that content loads quickly. When traffic gets heavy, ELB manages the load, preventing servers from crashing and reducing wait times for users.

They’re all parts of a larger puzzle and lay the foundations for a better customer experience. Users can find the information they need without any delays, which increases the likelihood of conversions and retention.

While cloud technology used to only be available to large enterprises with resources, it’s become more accessible today. Anyone can set up enterprise-class services in minutes without needing a substantial upfront investment.

Being a small business is no longer a reason for a sub-optimal user experience. Cloud technology has leveled the playing field when it comes to optimizing the user experience, and firms would be remiss to not take advantage of what it has to offer.

Explore the basics of cloud computing at Amazon Web Services’ AWSome Day Online Conference, a free one-day event led by AWS technical experts, which will be held on November 16. Tailored for beginners, the event will introduce and unpack key cloud concepts, core services, and innovative solutions across industries, giving attendees practical skills to implement cloud technology in their businesses.

Sign up for the AWSome Day Online Conference on its website now.

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This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.