Have you ever experienced a slow internet connection that took decades to load online content? Slow website speed is about as painful as pulling teeth and can be frustrating if you are trying to make purchases.
Website speed can make the difference between a potential customer getting the information they need or making a purchase on your website or leaving your site and choosing your competitor with a faster website download. Your company’s website is the customer’s first impression of your brand and can make or break your online success. You may be wondering how fast your website loads, and why it even matters, so let’s break that down.
Know Your Website Speed
Google Analytics is the perfect place to find out how fast your website is. The data can easily be found by logging into Google Analytics and going to Site Speed Overview. This will indicate the length of time the average user spends on your site. Another great place is Google Page Speed Insights which offers a more precise indication of what your website speed is.
In general, Google measures website speed on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the fastest and 1 being the slowest. If your score happens to be 85, Google considers this website speed as fast and high performing. Not only does Google Page Speed Insights indicate the website speed, but it also provides detailed instructions on how to maximize it.
We understand that some of these tools may be more complex for small business owners to use, but they are extremely helpful whether you are working alone or with a team of experts.
User Experience Is Key
The simpler the user experience, the more likely customers will stay on your website and shop. If your website speed is slow, customers will get frustrated and most likely will not stay on your company’s page. This indicates that your website speed has hindered your company’s ability to accomplish its goals of keeping the customer informed and leaving a positive impression.
Since most people are able to access the necessary information on their mobile devices, it is even more important that your website speed is able to keep the attention of potential customers.
In fact, 47% of customers expect a company’s website to load within 2 seconds. If the website does not meet this requirement, 40% of customers indicated that they leave the website. A 1‑second delay can result in an 11% drop in page views. The key is to keep the customer engaged while converting users to leads and leads to sales.
Page Ranks Importance
Your website represents your face value. How your website performs makes an impact on how your page ranks on internet searches. Page rankings carry a lot of weight for Google, for both desktop and mobile. The higher the ranking on Google, the more likely it is that the customer will choose your site first.
Reasons for Slow Website Speed
If you have slow website speed, it is in your best interest to know why, and how to fix it. Some causes of slow website speed include themes and plugins, web hosting, images, and ads.
Themes and plugins should always be up to date and simple. The more complex they are, the more likely they will slow down your website speed. Your web host can make a huge difference in how fast your website loads. A quality web host can greatly improve website speed.
The number of images you include on your website can slow down your loading time. Compressing your images will help maintain their quality while maintaining high website load times. Too many ads can annoy customers and slow down website loading times. Keep only what is necessary!
Next Steps to Website Nirvana
There are various techniques to improve website speed. Some of the more technical tricks include compressing and merging images, rearranging HTML source code, and using a content delivery network for static resources. To achieve a 1‑second download, more than one technique must be applied. We at Rosy Strategies can help with this and much more. Our experienced experts are happy to help you get your website in top shape.
Give us a call, today, so we can get started!