Importance of Website Speed: Everything you need to know for Higher Conversions

Finlay Mure

Brands & Communications

Confused between various website speed metrics?

Wondering the importance of website speed and its correlation with conversions?

There is a lot of information on the Internet about website speed but not a resource where you can find all the linked information. This was the inspiration for this blog.

We have gathered important and relevant information about website speed, which directly impacts your business and, specifically, conversions.

Before we set out to discuss the importance with respect to various factors, let’s understand the broader picture.

Importance of Website Speed and its Effect

Website speed is directly linked to higher conversions, higher search engine rankings, better user experience, and much more.

Here are some facts that solidify these claims:

As per an interesting finding by Deloitte, an 8% boost in conversions can result in just a 0.1 seconds improvement in website speed.
A 103% increase in bounce rate can result in a 2-second delay in website speed.
Another finding of Deloitte states that retail sites experienced a 9.2% average increase in order value by reducing the load time by 0.1 seconds.
And so much more

These are just some of the hundreds and thousands of statistics that get published every once in a while. All these studies and experiments further solidify the claims of the importance of website speed.

Importance of Website Speed in terms of higher conversions

Conversions on your website depend on a lot of factors, and website speed is always the first one.

A minor delay on your website can make your prospect change his/her decision.

As per a finding on Think with Google, 77% of mobile users expressed that they are more likely to purchase from a website that offers quick purchasing

Speed is also linked to higher trust in your brand!

Brands often miss optimizing the website for the mobile version, where most of the conversions happen. Most web searches and purchasing behaviour have shifted to mobiles.

You must take care that the mobile experience is as good as the desktop experience.

Importance of Website Speed in terms of SEO

Google and other search engine rankings are wholly dependent on the user experience of your visitors.

Website speed is a major ranking factor, which can also be seen by the preference of AMP pages by most news websites.

AMP is a testament to the importance of website speed.

Do you know there is a direct correlation between website speed and the number of pages checked by a visitor? If your pages load faster, a user will browse more pages, decreasing your bounce rate and directly giving positive signs to Google.

Importance of Website Speed in terms of Paid Ads

One of the biggest benefits can be seen in paid ads, where a slight delay in website load speed can completely change the metrics of your paid ads.

If we take the example of Google ads, your spending and ad rankings depend on the quality score. There is a direct relation between Ad quality score and website loading time.

So, with the right speed, you can decrease your ad spending and increase conversions at the same time.

Importance of Website Speed in terms of UX

The user experience should always be the top priority for every business.

There are many instances where website speed enhances user experience, like:

Initial loading time plays a significant role and creates a brand perception at the beginning
Speed defines the behaviour of your visitor while navigating; a faster speed will lead to more pages being surfed
Users prefer to complete purchases quickly with as few steps as possible
And many others

Importance of website speed in terms of brand perception and repeat customers

Website speed is linked to hundreds of things, and as you have seen from the points listed above, it can affect many things in your business.

It all boils down to brand perception and repeat purchases. So, while you lose a conversion, you are losing that customer and the repeat purchases you would have got!

Top brands focus a lot on user experience, which is why visitors link website speed to trust.

If the experience is right at the first instance, you will definitely see a surge in repeat business from the same customers.

How to check my website speed?

There are a lot of online tools that can help you find essential metrics related to your current website speed:

Google Pagespeed Insights
Yslow
GTmetrix
Pingdom tools

How to optimize your Website for Speed?

I am sure the biggest question in your mind, after reading everything above, is how to fix my website’s speed?

There are a lot of factors that contribute to website speed, and knowing them can help you keep things in check.

We are listing the top things, and optimizing your website for these will help you achieve your target speed.

– Image Optimization

Images are usually the biggest factor in slowing down a website, although you can’t ignore them.

Make sure to optimize all your images for small sizes, which is probably less than 150kb. You should also choose lazy loading and responsive image options for all the images.

– Use a CDN

A CDN ensures that users are not accessing servers that are too far away from their current location. A worldwide network of servers enables this.

– Website hosting

Your website hosting servers and company plays a significant role in speed. Make sure to analyze the hosting company for various factors before making a decision.

– Other Important Factors

There are a few other factors, including:

Limiting the number of JS and CSS files that load on each page
Using an efficient website caching
Optimizing the database
Limiting plugins if you are using a CMS
Effective use of prefetching
Preventing 404 errors

Things to keep in mind to ensure speed remains consistent

After optimizing the speed once, make sure to keep a list of things to check consistently, so you are not missing out because of website speed. Here is an example of such a list:

Always optimize the images before uploading them

Check the speed after every minor/major change on the website

Change servers after getting more than average traffic

Check the speed after scheduled updates on the website

Conclusion

You now have all the essential info to ensure your website is optimized for speed and you are not making any related mistakes.

I hope you now have an idea of all factors linked to loading speed.

If you are getting problems while fixing your website or have unanswered questions about your E-commerce Business, feel free to contact us, and we will help you with our experience in building and scaling E-com Businesses!

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