The Speed Tax
Three seconds. That's how long the average user waits before abandoning a slow-loading website. In an era of instant gratification, web performance isn't a nice-to-have—it's existential.
Yet most websites are getting slower, not faster. Despite faster networks and more powerful devices, page weights have ballooned and load times have stagnated. What's going wrong?
The Cost of Slow
Performance impacts everything that matters:
At Amazon's scale, that's billions lost to latency.
Half a second difference, massive user loss.
Speed directly converts to business growth.
Linear relationship between time and abandonment.
53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.
Average mobile landing page takes 22 seconds.
Most sites are 7x slower than users will tolerate.
Why Sites Keep Getting Slower
Several forces push against performance:
Core Web Vitals Explained
Google's Core Web Vitals represent the metrics that matter most:
| Metric | What It Measures | Target |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) |
How quickly main content appears | < 2.5 seconds |
| FID (First Input Delay) |
How quickly users can interact | < 100ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) |
Does content jump while loading? | < 0.1 score |
Performance Quick Wins
Some optimizations deliver disproportionate impact:
- Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF) for 25-50% smaller files
- Implement lazy loading for below-fold images
- Serve appropriate sizes for each device width
- Audit dependencies ruthlessly—do you need that entire library?
- Defer non-critical scripts using async/defer attributes
- Consider lighter alternatives (Preact instead of React)
- Set long cache durations for static assets
- Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for nearby serving
- Implement service workers for returning visitors
- Inline critical CSS in the document head
- Preload key resources (fonts, hero images)
- Eliminate render-blocking resources
Building a Performance Culture
Technical fixes matter less than organizational commitment:
- 3 seconds max: 53% of mobile users abandon sites slower than this
- Money on the table: Every 100ms costs Amazon 1% of sales
- SEO matters: Core Web Vitals are now Google ranking factors
- Quick wins exist: Images, JS diet, caching, critical rendering
- Culture > fixes: Measure, make visible, shift left, celebrate
The Bottom Line
Web performance is a feature—arguably the most important feature. In a world where attention is scarce and options are infinite, every millisecond matters.
The sites that thrive will be the ones that respect users' time. Speed isn't just a technical metric—it's a statement about whose time you value.
- web.dev - Core Web Vitals Documentation
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- "Web Performance in Action" by Jeremy Wagner