# What is Cognitive Load? | Yungle glossary

> Cognitive load is the mental effort required for a visitor to understand and use a page.

Source: https://yungle.ai/glossary/cognitive-load/

1.  [Resources](https://yungle.ai/resources)
2.  Glossary

Glossary · C

# Cognitive Load

In plain words

Cognitive load is the amount of mental effort a visitor has to spend processing a page's layout, copy, and choices. Reducing cognitive load, through clearer hierarchy, simpler copy, and fewer competing CTAs, is a foundational UX principle that improves both usability and conversion rate.

Example

A pricing page with nine plans and twenty toggles makes visitors work too hard. Three plans with one recommended option is easier to decide on.

Related resources

-   FAQ

    ## How Fast Should My Website Load?

    Aim for under 2.5 seconds for your largest content element to load (Largest Contentful Paint) — anything past 3 seconds starts costing you visitors and search rankings. Speed is both a ranking factor and a conversion factor — every extra second of load time measurably increases bounce rate. Heavy images, unoptimized code, and bloated third-party scripts are the usual culprits. A well-built site loads fast by default.

    [See answer](https://yungle.ai/resources?type=faq#how-fast-should-my-website-load)
-   Insight

    ## How to Write Copy AI Answer Engines Can Quote

    A practical guide to writing website copy that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can extract, attribute to your brand and cite.

    [Read insight](https://yungle.ai/insights/writing-copy-that-ai-answer-engines-can-quote)
-   Glossary

    ## Heading Hierarchy

    Heading hierarchy is the logical order of H1 through H6 tags that structures a page's content.

    [See term](https://yungle.ai/glossary/heading-hierarchy)
-   Glossary

    ## Natural Language Processing

    NLP is the branch of AI that lets computers understand, interpret, and generate human language.

    [See term](https://yungle.ai/glossary/natural-language-processing-nlp)
-   FAQ

    ## What Makes a Website User-Friendly?

    A user-friendly website has clear navigation, fast load times, obvious next steps, and content that answers visitor questions without making them dig for it. Good UX is mostly invisible — visitors don't notice it, they just don't get frustrated. The test is simple: can someone unfamiliar with your business find what they need in under 10 seconds? If not, the structure needs work before the visuals do.

    [See answer](https://yungle.ai/resources?type=faq#what-makes-a-website-user-friendly)

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