Supercharge your Website with Amazon CloudFront

Clear Skies

The vast majority of web surfers are spoiled with DSL high-speed broadband and fiber connectivity, yet sometimes users still experience slow page loads. Statistics show that consumers are quite responsive to slow page load times, and those who create and maintain websites generally acknowledge that website performance matters.

In this article, I will explore how you can improve your WordPress website and make it deliver optimally with the use of Amazon CloudFront [1] and a potent plugin, W3 Total Cache [2]. How your site performs can help or hinder your success online, whether you have a simple WordPress website, blog, or elegant e-commerce effort.

According to an Akamai study on web performance [3]:

• 47% of people expect a website to load in two seconds or less.
• 40% will abandon a web page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
• 79% of online shoppers who experienced a lackluster experience indicated they were less likely to buy from the site again.

Why Load Time Matters

At this point, it should be abundantly clear that users respond negatively to an underperforming website; therefore, it is imperative that you work to improve site performance. Slow load times can have other negative effects on your web efforts, such as:

• Bad User Experience – You want visitors to your site to have a positive perception and response to your efforts, but a slow site damages that potential. When your site lags behind established norms, it can affect the user experience, your brand, and your very online success.
• E-commerce Abandonment – As shown in the statistics above, e-commerce is very sensitive to load times. Every second counts, with costs in lost visitors and,

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