This month we published two 2010 Website Performance Benchmark whitepapers. This research is based on measuring the load times of all the Fortune 500 (USA) and FTSE 350 (UK) companies and compiling a set of performance benchmarks that all websites should use.

We measured the homepage of each website using four performance benchmarks:

1. First view load time (domestic)
2. First view load time (international)
3. Repeat view load time
4. Start render time

The load times are real world "end user load times" i.e. how long it takes to load a page from the time a user enters an URL in their browser to when the page displays in the browser.

Methodology

To obtain these results, we used WebPageTest.org - a free online tool that accurately measures load times by using Internet Explorer 7 on a dedicated machine from locations around the world to load the webpage and measure load times to "document complete" - where all the page elements are loaded, but before any flash animations begin.We performed tests measuring load times from Dulles VA USA; Wellington, New Zealand and Gloucester UK, the global load times are an average of the test results from the three locations.

Results

Fortune 500 - 2010 Website Performance Benchmarks
Fortune 500 - Results data
Fortune 500 - Infographic
FTSE 350 - 2010 Website Performance Benchmarks
FTSE 350 - Results data
FTSE 350 - Infographic

How they compare

• Overall global load times are almost identical:  UK:9.592, USA 9.462
• The UK domestic load times are faster: UK 5.545, USA 7.066
• UK start render times are 29% slower UK 3.817, USA 2.960
• UK domestic repeat view load times are 25% slower:  UK: 4.947 USA: 3.970
• Overall, the USA websites are richer - 19% more content and 17% more HTTP requests

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