Looking to learn more about the amount of internet time delay it takes for a request to be fully transferred from one place to another? So surely you want to know what internet latency is right? Where it is measured in milliseconds.

That's why we've prepared this short article where we'll explain what it is, what the ideal latency is, the difference between latency and bandwidth, how you can reduce latency in your web projects, and what are the main factors that cause it.

So, let's learn more about what is latency on the internet?

What is internet latency?

Latency means delay or delay, on the internet it means how long it takes for a request to be transferred from one place to another. That as we mentioned at the beginning it is measured in milliseconds (ms).

To exemplify a very simple and clear example to understand is the request that your pc made to access this web site where you are reading this article now. Surely you must be imagining that it should be “0” or as close as possible to it. Yes, you're right, but that's not what usually happens.

Know that internet speed is measured between bandwidth and latency, and this can even cause some confusion when we get into this subject. So since you now know what latency is on the internet, let's talk about bandwidth and what are the main causes of time delay on the web.

Difference between internet latency and bandwidth:

In case you don't already know this information, know that the two work together, we can even say that they go hand in hand. But of course they have different meanings and one impairs the functioning of the other. Understand why:

• Latency, in turn, is completely linked to the speed at which a certain content or web page is loaded, for example, inside a pipe between a possible client and a physical server, round trip.
• And the width of the band is totally related to the width of the pipe, which can be wide or narrow, so if the pipe is very narrow then the volume of content transported inside will be smaller.

Keeping this information in mind, we can understand that if you have good latency plus very narrow bandwidth, the longer it will take for client information to reach the server. Even though this is fast (latency) there is very little space (bandwidth).

But what is the optimal latency?

In this case, this answer may depend on some factors such as almost everything on the internet, so in this case the type of project and what you use the internet for will help to answer what is the ideal latency on the internet.

Some time ago Google revealed that the loading speed of a website is one of the main ranking factors in organic searches, knowing that the latency of a website or page on the internet has a total impact on the number of visits and also sales.

Until some time ago, it was only necessary to worry about the speed of websites accessed via desktop, but with the arrival of smartphones, it is extremely important that you also always prioritize the best user experience on mobile devices.

Research reveals that approximately 67% of people who buy online always complain about the time it takes for sites to load on mobile devices. And the same research reveals that other 53% abandon the site altogether because it takes longer than 3 milliseconds to load.

As you already know, we believe that the Google search engine does not want to offer a bad browsing experience to its customers. That's why we recommend that you always test the speed of your site using tools for this. And with that always seek to improve.

Main causes:

Know that it can be caused by many factors, among them one of the most important is related to the type of connection, and also by congestion that can occur when you want to send more content than the pipeline can handle. Not to mention the location of the servers.

But you must be wondering now: But why should I care about it? Can it harm my online business? The answer is yes.

How to reduce?

One of the best things you can do to reduce internet lag is to make use of a Content Delivery Network, a CDN.

The CDN'S data center servers are distributed in different places around the planet in hundreds of countries, so a copy of the content is always stored closer to the end user. That way the requests made by them don't need to go that far.

Which will result in less latency time, as the requested web page will load much faster and in much less time, thus improving the performance of your websites and online projects.

Quick conclusion:

We can conclude that latency on the internet is the delay or delay in time of a request that a user makes to access content on the web. And now with this information in hand, don't let this delay or delay harm your internet projects no way.

As mentioned, always use a CDN network to make the reduction and make your pages faster and more accessible to your visitors.

That's it, we really hope we were able to help you understand more about the subject, what are its causes and how to reduce it. We're done here, and success in all your online projects?