Published June 3, 2015 - by Craig Buckler

I was hoping it was a blip. I was hoping 2015 would be the year of performance. I was wrong. Average web page weight has soared 7.5% in five months to exceed 2Mb. That’s three 3.5 inch double-density floppy disks-worth of data (ask your grandparents!).

The biggest rises are for CSS, JavaScript, other files (mostly fonts) and—surprisingly—Flash. The average number of requests per page:

100 files in total (up from 95)
7 style sheet files (up from 6)
20 JavaScript files (up from 18)
3 font files (up from 2)

Images remain the biggest issue, accounting for 56 requests and 62% of the total page weight.

Finally, remember these figures are averages. Many sites will have a considerably larger weight.

See full article on his site, useful and detailed statistics are offered.

http://www.sitepoint.com/2mb-web-pages-whos-blame/

What can I do to improve the performance for visitors. Improving response and increasing speed. Sitemorse performance section offers a raft of detail to help identify and focus improvement.

Extract from 10 Web Predictions for 2015 (@craigbuckler)

"9. 2015 is The Year of Performance

We’ve concentrated on making sites respond to screen size. What we haven’t done is make them responsive to user interaction and bandwidth. The web has an amazing future but people often prefer native apps because they’re faster and, in some cases, offer a smaller installation package than a corresponding web page.

Average page weight has doubled during the past three years to reach an obese 2MB. Has your fixed and mobile bandwidth doubled during the same period? Are web sites and applications twice as good?

Performance has been highlighted by many in the industry but it’s yet to encroach on the general consciousness of web developers. The economy is partly to blame; building something quickly and cheaply is an attractive option. But it’s not cost effective if people refuse to use your cumbersome, resource-hogging application or demand native apps.

2015 is the year to re-evaluate and prioritize performance. Perhaps we need to return to the ideology of the dial-up internet days when developers would strive for efficiency. Let’s rediscover those lost skills."