Optimum load time per page?

[YaYa]

The trade off: more beautiful graphics, or faster loading page?

I'm doing my first web page. Is there a target k size or "time to load" per page? I noticed that dreamweaver will
give you the size and time to load for each page as per connection speed.

What should I shoot for?

Thanks

YaYa

 

[chiph]

Most reccommendations I have seen is that you want your initial page to load in 3 seconds or less.

A lot depends on who your audience is. If you expect most of your users to have broadband connections, then you can use lots of graphics and flash animations. 56k modem users can't transfer as much data in 3 seconds, so your pages shouldn't have a lot of graphics.

Chip H.

 

[caffeinerusher]

I have been told the industry standard is no more than 8 seconds on a 56K. That is the standard we use for e-commerce developement. But the faster the better!

--Caffeinerusher

 

[chiph]

OK, it might have been 8 (looks a lot like a "3"!).

8 seconds is still respectable for a load time. But as you say, the faster the better.

You can probably stretch that a bit for interior pages, but probably not more than 12 seconds.

Chip H.