As website developers we often get consumed by speed of delivery. However, we can often overlook what it costs for people to actually visit our website (the size of the home page). I came across THIS TOOL that evaluates the cost of a visit to your website in various parts of the world via the cheapest mobile data plans available in each country (best case scenario). The results can be quite surprising. One site I checked recently (an image intense site) clocked up a cost of over $1.26 in Canada, and that’s before anyone started clicking page links to other parts of the site.
I found it quite interesting that the most expensive site visits involve countries where there is supposed to be a modern mobile network offered at cheap rates. The results show that the least likely countries (maybe some considered third world) have some of the cheapest data costs, whilst countries such as Canada, Japan, Switzerland China and a fair few EU countries have some of the most expensive costs.
It’s also interesting that the Global Median for web pages is about 2 mb. This seems to give a reasonable cost per page visit , so it could act as a good benchmark to aim for.
Anyway, check it out and find out what it costs people to visit your web page.
I remember this thread years ago with some interesting dialog regarding that site, Google Lighthouse even used to reference that site directly. They still reference it but now as part of their avoid enormous network payloads page. This recent article on obese websites also mentioned it again and was a good read in general regarding web page size considerations.
The topic of optimizing websites for size, performance and various other user considerations is nothing new. Instead it just keeps recycling and never ceases to be important regardless of the historical timeline of the web. Sadly people think faster internet solves everything for everyone, not so. The web in general is constantly getting more bloated than ever.
Perhaps true for many, but intent and demographics can vary widely, not all sites have the purpose of monetary gain. Fortunately there are still sites trying to do actual good throughout humanity and within their communities seeking a broad outreach to individuals.
Should we really then segregate those that are worthy to visit a site? Probably not since in general dealing with bounce rates of even minuscule percentages for numerous reasons is bad enough. Why then go and willfully exclude anyone who may wish to visit a site.
I am talking about potential clients visiting my website, rather than making this a political discussion. Remember the subject is “What is the cost of visiting your website?”
Honestly can you please articulate a little better what was wrong with my comment that the originator of the thread didn’t seem to have issue with?
When you made your initial comment that I then responded to, you had generalized to others past declaring anything about your own website. Yet when I generalized my response relative to the overall broader subject matter you seemingly took offense? I’m asking as your last response does not really clarify anything and I’m trying to understand your actual point of view.
As the originator of this thread, I just want to make clear that I wasn’t suggesting that the cost of visiting a web page should be related in any way to what we may perceive as a “worthy” audience. The thing is, visiting a web page costs money - particularly for those on mobile data. Therefore, it should be of interest to us all to know what people have to pay when they do visit. Clearly, if our pages are particularly large, it is a bit of an imposition to simply assume those that don’t care about he cost are better visitors than those who may be a little more “penny-wise”. In fact, looking at the stats produced show that it’s mainly the wealthier countries of the world who will pay the highest cost of a visit, with those living in perceivably poorer nations being able to visit for one or two cents.
I was simply highlighting that there are more considerations than just speed when it comes to designing a website. Clearly, if your target audience is in one of the higher cost nations, you may be viewed as a more "considerate " designer if you keep the page load to around or below the median. Of course, if your target audience are countries where mobile data is mere pennies, we don’t have to care so much about page load.
Honestly can you please articulate a little better what was wrong with my comment that the originator of the thread didn’t seem to have issue with?