Connecting the Dots Between Site Speed, User Experience & Your Business [WebExpo 2025]

by Tammy Everts

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Connecting the dots between… site speed user experience your business @tammyeverts #WebExpo 2025

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3 @tammyeverts.com /tammyeverts

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speedcurve.com/benchmarks

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Web Performance Guide speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/

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Why should I care?

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Why should I care? How do I measure site speed?

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Why should I care? How do I measure site speed? How fast should my site be?

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Why should I care? How do I measure site speed? How fast should my site be? How do I make it faster?

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“web stress”

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“web stress” When apps or sites are slow, we concentrate up to 50% harder to stay on task

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People feel slowness in the moment

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Frustration increases between 11.5% and 26% during browsing and checkout

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People feel slowness after they leave your site

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fast slow

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content “boring”

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content visual design “boring” “tacky” “confusing”

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content visual design usability “boring” “tacky” “confusing” “frustrating” ‘hard to navigate”

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People feel slowness long after they leave your site

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If you do not consider time as a usability factor, you are missing a fundamental aspect of the user experience.

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How can I measure page speed?

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Performance monitoring tools Synthetic monitoring (lab) Mimics deﬁned network & browser conditions No installation required Limited URLs Limited test locations Compare any sites Detailed analysis & visuals Real user monitoring (ﬁeld) Real network & browser conditions Requires JavaScript installation Large sample size (up to 100%) Geographic spread Only measure your own site Correlation with other metrics (e.g., bounce rate)

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Real user monitoring Helps you understand your users and how they experience your site

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Synthetic monitoring Helps you understand your pages and what you need to ﬁx to improve UX

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What metrics should I focus on?

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Is the page loading?

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Is the page loading? Can I use it?

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Is the page loading? Can I use it? How does it feel?

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Is the page loading? Can I use it? How does it feel? Does it correlate with business metrics?

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Meaningful content Usable out of the box Broad browser support Synthetic RUM Correlates to business/UX Time to First Byte ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ Start Render ☆ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Largest Contentful Paint ☆ ★ ★ ★ ★ Cumulative Layout Shift ☆ ★ ★ ★ Interaction to Next Paint ★ ★ ★ speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/glossary-of-web-performance-metrics/

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How fast should my site be?

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Real user monitoring Helps you understand your users and how they experience your site

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Identify the conversion peak

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speedcurve.com/blog/site-speed-business-correlation/

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1.1 second Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) 6.2% conversion rate speedcurve.com/blog/site-speed-business-correlation/

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Locate the performance plateau

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speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-plateau/

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Understand your goal vs threshold

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speedcurve.com/blog/site-speed-business-correlation/ 1.1 second is your GOAL 2.8 seconds is your THRESHOLD

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What do I need to ﬁx?

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Not all pages are equal

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1. Product 2. Category 3. Home 4. Cart 5. Search Conversion impact // retail sites

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1. Article 2. Search 3. Department 4. Home 5. About Engagement impact // media sites

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Identify the critical rendering path

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Synthetic monitoring Helps you understand your pages and what you need to ﬁx to improve UX

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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) When the main visual element has rendered in the viewport

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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) When the main visual element has rendered in the viewport After LCP From a user’s perspective, none of this matters (It does actually matter, but not for our purposes today)

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critical rendering path

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“The dull boring stuff” ~Andy Davies

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“The dull boring stuff” ~Andy Davies Scripts (including third parties) speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/best-practices-for-optimizing-javascript/

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“The dull boring stuff” ~Andy Davies Scripts (including third parties) Images speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/best-practices-for-optimizing-images/

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“The dull boring stuff” ~Andy Davies Scripts (including third parties) Images Defer assets where possible speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/using-critical-css-for-faster-rendering/

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Web Performance Guide speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/

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Even small changes can have a huge impact

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Shaved 15KB off logo Ran A/B test Increased bookings chasingwaterfalls.io/episodes/episode-one-with-malek-hakim/

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1. Compressed images 2. Deferred image sprite that was blocking rendering 3. Optimized CSS and JS on the critical rendering path

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2s improvement in median load time almost 2X mobile conversions

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1. Measure! 2. Start with just a few metrics 3. Identify your speed goals (and thresholds) 4. Focus on the pages that matter most 5. Optimize the critical rendering path 6. Keep measuring 7. Celebrate your wins!