In order for your website to be successful, you have to go beyond its design, content, and cheap hosting, and look at its loading speed as well. Continue reading to learn more about why website loading speed is so important, and how it can actually have an impact on your bottom line.
People Abandon Sites That Load Slowly
First off, people don’t have the time or the patience these days to wait for a website to load. After just a few seconds of waiting for a page to load, they will simply close it and move on to another website instead.
Studies have even proven that individuals will only be willing to wait for an average of about seven seconds before they click on the back button, and they likely won’t be coming back to your site either to see if it loads any faster later on.
Other studies have found that even just one extra second of load time on a website could potentially cause 7 percent drop in conversions. Also, 40 percent of users will abandon a site completely if they have to wait more than just three seconds for the site to load up on their computer or mobile device.
Loading Time Affects Google Ranking
If you have worked extremely hard on your website’s SEO in order to ensure that your website will show up at the top of relevant search engine results but you have not taken your website’s loading time into account, you are making a big mistake.
This is because websites that load too slowly may even be dropped down to a lower ranking in Google search results. Loading time is considered when Google performs its rankings, and the CEO of Google has even stated that speed is one of the most important features of a website.
Reduced Conversions and Profits
When your website loads too slowly and people abandon your website, they will not have the chance to learn more about you, to read your content, to check out your products and services, and to make a purchase online or visit you at your physical location to make a purchase.
The more this happens, the fewer conversions you will see, and the lower your profits will ultimately be. For example, if a website is generating £100,000 every day, a mere one-second delay in load time could cost that business £2.5 million in lost profits per year. By focusing on your website’s load time, you can ensure that people will stick around and that they will take the time to determine if your products and services are right for them.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many reasons why website loading speed is so important to online businesses today, as well as bloggers, creative individuals, and anyone else who has a website that they use to promote themselves. So in addition to focusing on your site’s user experience, make sure you also have a website that will load within three seconds for the best results.
