Before broadband internet was mainstream in Australia, many people joked about the web being the world wide wait. Certainly high-speed internet access has made a considerable difference to everyone’s web browsing habits, but still some pages are slow. Why is this?
Big images mean large file sizes and therefore longer download times.
Animations are made up of lots of images, and typically take longer to load as a result. They’re also frustrating to users as they often have a loading screen where not much happens (except waiting).
Websites which have automated features like search are sometimes doing lots of things in the background while loading the page. This can lead to slowness.
Having under construction pages on a mostly finished website is a clear sign of a disorganised business owner. While it’s tempting to make an under construction page as a self reminder to later write the text for that page, it doesn’t send a positive message to your customers.
Web surfers get frustrated when they click on a menu item and visit an empty page. Some people think that an under construction page will entice users to come back later, but honestly, we’re all just too busy to remember which websites might have a page coming soon.
Remember your visitors don’t know what pages you’re planning to add, so best advice is to simply leave these pages out. Don’t have them linked from the menu, and don’t give any hint that a new page is coming.
Just launch it, then advise with a great email newsletter.