Research demonstrates that slow web pages decrease a companies perceived credibility (Fogg et al, 2001). Essentially, visitors see a connection between the website and the parent organization’s ability to do business at a reasonable pace.
Amazon tested and found that increased load times of just 100ms decreased sales by 1% (Kohavi and Longbotham 2007). Even Google with it’s extremely fast loading queries, tested loading 30 results automatically (.09 seconds) instead of 10 (.04 seconds), to find a loss of traffic and ad revenues by 20% (Linden 2006)! Similar results were found for Google Maps, and Microsoft live search (before starting Bing). Fast loading websites are proven to keep visitors from frustration, decreases their blood pressure (Scheirer et al. 2002), and can yeild conversion rates (Akamai 2007)!
Even well-optimized websites frequently have spikes that can overload the server, slow down pages, or make entrances unavailable – especially as the traffic grows, which is the ultimate goal, right!?
There is no way to guarantee fast loading websites without 1) Continuous monitoring of the server load times, and 2) Making adjustments to server and page elements to ensure faster page load times.
Resources: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/psychology-web-performance/