Why Is Website Speed Important?

How quickly a website loads is crucial to success. This has always been an important factor but in recent times it has become even more vital that your website loads quickly.

The massive increase in popularity of mobile devices means that a large proportion of website visits are on devices that may have slower internet connections and older unoptimized websites may load slowly on these devices.

A slow loading website can be frustrating for a website visitor and can result in poor search engine rankings, lower overall site traffic, and negative user experiences.

Multiple studies have demonstrated that website speed is a huge factor for the success of your website. Users stay on fast-loading sites and they convert (carry out actions like fill out a form etc) at higher rates compared to slower sites. A number of companies have found that a decrease in page load time of even just a few milliseconds increases conversions:

• Mobify found that decreasing their homepage's load time by 100 milliseconds resulted in a 1.11% uptick in session-based conversion
• Retailer AutoAnything experienced a 12-13% increase in sales after cutting page load time in half
• Walmart discovered that improving page load time by one second increased conversions by 2%
   

A scientific approach is not required however to determine that first impressions are vital on the web. Your customers, readers, and website visitors make an instant judgement about you and your business when they load your website. If your website takes too long to load or is too slow to navigate, the visitor will quickly move on to another competitor.

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.

In modern times people have become accustomed to getting things almost instantly on the internet, and they expect this from every website they visit.

• 47% of people expect your site to load in less than 2 seconds.
• 40% will abandon it entirely if it takes longer than 3 seconds.
   

It is absolutely critical when developing a new website that speed is taken into account. At Problue Solutions, speed is a big factor for our web development services. Sometimes this can mean compromises with large images and graphics, but a lot of improvements can be made by simply optimising how the website is delivered in the browser.

Speed matters. It affects your user experience; it affects your search ranking. It affects your sales and conversions.

If you have a slow loading website that you would like us to improve, get in touch.