Web page speed, referring to the time taken for a webpage to load can be a conversion killer. It is determined by factors such as your sites server, image compression and page file size. As consumers we are extremely impatient, in todays age especially we expect immediate responses which why your page speed is vitally important. Here are a few other reasons why:
You only have once chance to make a first impression, the internet is a very competitive place, you need to stand out amongst competitors, and this begins with a consumers first impressions of your business. If your web pages are lagging you have immediately made a negative first impression. User experience is vital, it is a great opportunity to set yourself apart from competitors, if your visitor isn’t having a good experience on your site, they will simply look else where. A possible conversion opportunity lost.
Google aims to ensure the best user experience to all visitors which is why site speed is a ranking signal used by them. Google recognises that delays in site speed cause frustration, and therefore a site that loads slowly is penalised and will not rank highly. Similarly Facebook ads favour high speed websites, in 2017 they announced an algorithm which priorities user experience. A sites speed and consequentially level of user experience will determine if your ads are prioritised or not.
Slow websites are likely to also suffer from a high bounce rate, lower visitor numbers and as a result a low conversion rate. Bounce rate refers to a visitor who visits no more than one page on your site, before leaving. It is likely they got fed up at the site speed and went to search elsewhere to fulfil their needs. If your site has a high bounce rate, your likely to have low conversions due to the possible conversions you are loosing out on. Visitors want information immediately, they wont wait around for it.
To conclude, for every second you shave off your web page load speed, you gain credibility, and your visitors trust and confidence in your business. With the stakes so high, it would be criminal if you didn’t invest time in optimising your web page speed, especially as it is very easily done. As a first step you can use Page speed insights by Google. This will provide you with a detailed description of your web page speeds, both on desktop and mobile. This tool will also provide you with information on how exactly you can improve this. Some suggestions could be to minimise plugins, landing page redirects and to optimise imaged to reduce the file size.
For the effort you put in to get visitors to your site, you must ensure you do enough to keep them there. We can help you with this at Darren Langley Web Design. For any further advice please contact us, we would be happy to assist.