Web site and shopping cart performance should be monitored from
around the world
By David Leonhardt
Bill Huang sits down at his computer. As he connects to the
Internet, he glances out at the sun poking its nose above the
Hong Kong skyline. It will be another busy day, and he has to
order those slippers for his wife before rushing off to a
meeting.
He types in his search terms and Google faithfully reports:
"Results 1 - 100 of about 1,760,000. Search took 0.34 seconds."
Bill clicks on a the Big Soft Slipper web site and waits for the
page to load. "Site unavailable," Bill reads. He hits the
"back" button. Then he clicks on another of the 1,760,000 pages
Google offered him.
High above Cleveland, USA, the executives at Big Soft Slipper are
clinking their glasses and patting themselves on the back. "We
sure did it," the CEO crows. "Look at that beautiful home page.
Look at the easy navigation. Look at how fast it loads."
Somebody please tell them about Bill Huang.
"Very few people realize how the web site that loads so zippy in
their office, flows like molasses on their customers' computers -
and may not even be accessible at all," says Vadim Mazo, CEO of
Dotcom-Monitor ( http://www.dotcom-monitor.com ), a web site
monitoring company. "While they celebrate, they could be losing
customers."
Even in the United States, the most developed Internet market in
the world, one out of five Internet users still operate on 56K
connections. Smart companies have gotten wise, and test their
web sites on slow connections - usually 56K. That leaves 13
million Americans with even slower connections - along with
hordes of customers in India, China, Australia, Russia, South
Africa and elsewhere around the world.
Who is monitoring your web site from Europe and Asia?
"We just opened up a new web site monitoring station in Hong
Kong, because there is a growing demand for monitoring web site
performance from Asia," Mr. Mazo adds. "While nobody can monitor
individual connections, we can monitor sever side connection
speeds and web site accessibility - both of which are affected by
transatlantic transfers."
In fact, bottlenecks can develop in several spots along the
transatlantic connections - bottlenecks that could slow down or
even block a web site completely. If a webmaster is not
monitoring the performance of his web site overseas as well as at
home, he will not be aware of the bottleneck and unable to
contact his provider about it.
The fact is that a web site will load slower on the opposite side
of the world, regardless of the type of connection the surfer
has. But that is compounded when the transatlantic connections,
or other local connections, block up.
Is connection speed a problem worth monitoring?
In May 2001, Zona Research reported that slow loading web sites
accounted for $25 billion in lost sales each year (
http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/483429.html
) As Internet usage continues to climb around the world, that
figure might be closer to $40 billion by now.
Another study, by BizRate.com ( http://www.bizrate.com ) in 2000,
revealed that most people abandon purchases on the Internet while
already in the shopping cart section - 21 percent due to slow-
loading pages. In other words, even when the home page and the
sales pages operate at a satisfactory speed, customers get
frustrated by slow loading or failed shopping carts.
"It's one thing to know that your web site is accessible. It is
another to know that all your forms and your shopping carts are
performing to your customers' satisfaction," Mr. Mazo says. He
adds that web site monitoring avoids the embarrassing moment when
the customer lets a company know its site is not accessible. "The
only thing worse is if nobody lets you know and you just keep
losing sales."
This suggests there is value in monitoring your web site from
overseas -- and in monitoring the forms and shopping carts and
anything other server requests and user transactions
Stella Huang loves her new slippers. They are just perfect. She
really does not care where they come from. The executives at Big
Soft Slipper were not monitoring their web site performance, so
they have no idea that they just lost a customer. And another
customer. And another...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Leonhardt is a freelance writer, and an online and offline
publicity specialist. Contact him at:
mailto:info@...
or visit his website at:
http://www.thehappyguy.com
For website monitoring:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com .
For details about web site monitoring services:
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/web-site-monitoring.asp
Web site monitoring is a global necessity
Web site and shopping cart performance should be monitored from
around the world
By David Leonhardt
Bill Huang sits down at his computer. As he connects to the
Internet, he glances out at the sun poking its nose above the
Hong Kong skyline. It will be another busy day, and he has to
order those slippers for his wife before rushing off to a
meeting.
He types in his search terms and Google faithfully reports:
"Results 1 - 100 of about 1,760,000. Search took 0.34 seconds."
Bill clicks on a the Big Soft Slipper web site and waits for the
page to load. "Site unavailable," Bill reads. He hits the
"back" button. Then he clicks on another of the 1,760,000 pages
Google offered him.
High above Cleveland, USA, the executives at Big Soft Slipper are
clinking their glasses and patting themselves on the back. "We
sure did it," the CEO crows. "Look at that beautiful home page.
Look at the easy navigation. Look at how fast it loads."
Somebody please tell them about Bill Huang.
"Very few people realize how the web site that loads so zippy in
their office, flows like molasses on their customers' computers -
and may not even be accessible at all," says Vadim Mazo, CEO of
http://www.dotcom-monitor.com>Dotcom-Monitor, a web site
monitoring company. "While they celebrate, they could be
losing customers."
Even in the United States, the most developed Internet market in
the world, one out of five Internet users still operate on 56K
connections. Smart companies have gotten wise, and test their
web sites on slow connections - usually 56K. That leaves 13
million Americans with even slower connections - along with
hordes of customers in India, China, Australia, Russia, South
Africa and elsewhere around the world.
Asia?
"We just opened up a new web site monitoring station in Hong
Kong, because there is a growing demand for monitoring web site
performance from Asia," Mr. Mazo adds. "While nobody can monitor
individual connections, we can monitor sever side connection
speeds and web site accessibility - both of which are affected by
transatlantic transfers."
In fact, bottlenecks can develop in several spots along the
transatlantic connections - bottlenecks that could slow down or
even block a web site completely. If a webmaster is not
monitoring the performance of his web site overseas as well as at
home, he will not be aware of the bottleneck and unable to
contact his provider about it.
The fact is that a web site will load slower on the opposite side
of the world, regardless of the type of connection the surfer
has. But that is compounded when the transatlantic connections,
or other local connections, block up.
In May 2001, Zona Research reported that
loading web sites accounted for $25 billion in lost sales each
year. As Internet usage continues to climb around the world,
that figure might be closer to $40 billion by now.
Another study, by http://www.bizrate.com>BizRate.com
in 2000, revealed that most people abandon purchases on the
Internet while already in the shopping cart section - 21 percent
due to slow-loading pages. In other words, even when the home
page and the sales pages operate at a satisfactory speed,
customers get frustrated by slow loading or failed shopping
carts.
"It's one thing to know that your web site is accessible. It is
another to know that all your forms and your shopping carts are
performing to your customers' satisfaction," Mr. Mazo says. He
adds that web site monitoring avoids the embarrassing moment when
the customer lets a company know its site is not accessible. "The
only thing worse is if nobody lets you know and you just keep
losing sales."
This suggests there is value in monitoring your web site from
overseas -- and in monitoring the forms and shopping carts and
anything other server requests and user transactions
Stella Huang loves her new slippers. They are just perfect. She
really does not care where they come from. The executives at Big
Soft Slipper were not monitoring their web site performance, so
they have no idea that they just lost a customer. And another
customer. And another...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Leonhardt is a freelance writer, and an online and offline
publicity specialist. Contact him at:
visit his http://www.thehappyguy.com>happiness
website. Visit http://www.dotcom-monitor.com>Dotcom-
Monitor for details on http://www.dotcom-
monitor.com/web-site-monitoring.asp>web site monitoring
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
David Leonhardt
The Happy Guy
Info@...