Page Speed – How does it affect your business?

Page Speed:
How does it affect your business?

Have you ever thought about how your website page speed directly affects your business? There are many factors that impact the page speed of a business website and blogs, directly, and indirectly. But before we come to that, let’s have a look at what the big guns have found out about how it affects your business directly.
Google is serious about speed. So much so, that website load time is starting to play a role in SERP (Search Engine Result Page) rankings.

Google

Google found that a 0.5s slowdown in loading speed = 20% drop in ad revenue for them.

Bing

Bing found, 2 seconds slower loading speed = 2.5% drop in queries and clicks

Amazon

Amazon found that a 0.1 second slower loading time = 1% drop in revenue.

Yahoo

Yahoo found 0.4 seconds faster load time = 9% increase in traffic.

Mozilla

Mozilla found that a 2.2 second faster download = 60 Million additional Firefox

Akamai

An Akamai study in 2009 found that 47% of users expect a 2s or less download time.

THE AKAMAI STUDY FURTHER FOUND THE FOLLOWING REGARDING LOW PAGE SPEED:

50%

Of users expect 3 seconds or less.

52%

Of online shoppers say that speed is important for their loyalty towards an online shop.

14%

Of online shoppers will rather shop elsewhere if a page is slow.

23%

Will just walk away from their PCs and give up entirely.

64%

Of shoppers who are not happy with the performance of your site will never return, even if they have stuck around and done the deal the first time around. Since it is easier to sell and market to an existing customer than a new one, this is very bad news…

These are devastating results. These are people with cash in hand, ready to buy. HOT LEADS… You do not want your business website to disengage people with cash in hand, ready to hand it to you.

THE GOMEZ PEAK TIME INTERNET USAGE STUDY FOUND THAT:
DURING PEAK TIMES,

75%

Of people will leave your site and go to the competition if site speed is slow.

88%

Is less likely to come back after a single slow experience.

50%

Relate a fast website with credibility, believability and trustworthiness.

33%

Will tell other people about a slow and disappointing website.

The worst thing about this research is that it is old. In internet years, it is ancient. People’s expectations have only increased since “way back” then. People expect more, and they want it faster.
Due to our high data costs in South Africa, people expect fast and small sites. The smaller a certain page is, the faster it will download, (only one of many factors that influence download speed). If a site loads slow, people tend to think it is because it is a data heavy page, and they abandon the page.

Your website should perform as fast as it can be.

Is your current site fast enough? Is mine?

NO. And that is why we at Web Design Foundry are obsessed with page speed. In a real world, it will never be fast enough.

Optimisation is an ongoing process, not a once off event.

Technology keeps on changing, and so does user expectations. What was fast 2 years ago, is dog slow today.

Until, and unless, websites load instantaneously and are instantaneously interactive, they can, and should be faster. “AJ – WpFaster.org

If a faster website page speed ensures a better user experience, longer user engagement, more clicks on the site itself, and better search engine rankings. What effect will it have on your sales?

PAGE SPEED IS CRITICAL TO THE ULTIMATE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF YOUR WEBSITE

The first and most important factor is to get people to see your business website, otherwise, it is worthless. No matter how fancy it looks, or what features it has, or what valuable information is on it, it means nothing if people don’t see it.

Please read more about Website Load Time as an extension of this article.
To find out how we can help you to get your website up and running as fast as possible to get you and retain more customers and sales, please contact us.
Find out more about our web design prices here.