Is Website Obesity Slowing Down Your Site?

The web obesity problem is becoming an epidemic. Like the increasing trend in human obesity, websites have also increased about 25 percent from a year ago, with today's site averaging 2162 KB. In the past five years, websites have grown 208 percent. We're on information overload, with no plans to slim down.

Why Are Websites Getting Fatter?

By having a fatter website, the user experience is richer – higher quality images, more content, more personalization, more functionality, etc. are all contributing to the page growth. Additionally, continuous delivery and lean development methodologies mean more changes are coming faster. While these changes are useful, they come at the cost of performance. In fact, every added kilobyte makes a website slower. If nothing is done to these bloated websites, the problem will continue to escalate, eventually leading to frustrated users, increased site abandonment and decreased conversions.

In this slideshow, Instart Logic has identified five key factors that contribute to website obesity and dramatically affect latency.