Faster Is Better, When It Comes To Page Speed

The Need… For Page Speed

The molasses-slow loading speeds of dial-up internet are a distant memory, but the loading time of your website remains a major focus, as your website may be the first experience a user has with your brand. But, why is the need for page speed, so important? What difference does a fraction of a second make?

Well, here is some data to consider:

• 47% of people expect less than 2 seconds of load time for a website.
• 53% of mobile users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
• 79% of online shoppers won’t go back to a website If they’ve had trouble with the page loading.
• For every second of delay in loading time, you can expect a 7% reduction in conversions.
• If an E-commerce website makes $1k/day, just a 1 second page delay can cost you roughly $30,000 in lost sales each year.
• And, of course… Page speed is a ranking factor that Google utilizes when rating your website.

Page Speed & The User Experience:

It’s pure psychology. We consider fast websites to be professional and reliable. We relate speed to efficiency, trust, and confidence. If your website loads fast, you’ve instantly made a strong first impression. It’s a quick “win” for user experience! If it loads fast, your new visitor is immediately happy.

A slow website, on the other hand, makes us think it’s unsafe, insecure, and untrustworthy. And it can be very difficult to turn around that negative first impression. In the landscape of online shopping, you don’t get a second chance when it comes to user experience.

Users have an expectation of seeing the content they came to find, the product they want to buy, or the service they are in need of. With every half second in reduced load time for your page, the user experience exponentially increases; conveying functionality and availability to your customers. If you are able to provide them with this enhanced experience, your website’s ranking will be rewarded by Google.

Aspects/Factors of Page Speed:

So you know you have a page speed issue, but what are the reasons? Consider these possibilities, which by themselves or in tandem could be dragging down your page speed.

• Your web hosting service provider may or may not offer the actual speeds they claim to achieve. You can measure to be sure, and consider other hosting services if needed.
• If your site is full of widgets or plugins, it will take longer to load.
• Images, videos, files, and iframes all require extra time to load due to the large amount of data being transmitted; consider the size of and number of these documents if you want to reduce your page loading time.
• Some design themes contain a lot of files and data just in the theme itself. Look in the details and make sure you aren’t selecting one of these “bloated” design themes. 

In closing; the loading time of your website makes a big difference. It affects user experience, search rankings, and even sales and conversions. There are many methods by which you can streamline your site; not compromising style and feel, but reducing the load time. Click to learn more about how SocialSEO can help improve your page speed?