How long does your website take to load? At Amazon.com, an in-house study found that a 100-millisecond delay could lead to a revenue drop of one percent. Websites that have a slow loading speed experience both decreased user satisfaction and lower revenue per user. The need for speed on the web is higher than ever before.
Your SEO Is Directly Tied to Speed
Starting in 2010, Google factored site speed into the ranking algorithm, and this SEO metric is still an important part of ensuring a first-page ranking. Fast websites make users and customers happy, and slow websites are often closed before the loading process finishes. Since search engines want to optimize user experience, they will only send users to sites that have a high chance of meeting the user’s expectations.
First Impressions Matter
The first impression your website makes matters, and if you have a slow website you might not even get a chance to show it off in the first place. Numerous research studies have investigated the link between speed and consumer perception. Customers associate speed with companies that are professional and reliable, and 76 percent of online shoppers won’t return to a site with loading issues. If your website loads quickly and correctly, you have made a strong first impression that shows you care about offering customers a great web experience.
What Do Users Expect?
As the internet has continued to adapt to user preferences, today’s users want things faster than ever before. Forty-seven percent of people expect websites to load in two seconds or less. Forty percent of people will close a browser window for a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Do you have a mobile version of your site? Eight-five percent of mobile site users expect the mobile site to load even faster than the site would load on a desktop computer.
What Factors In To Your Website’s Loading Speed?
- Website Templates: If you are using a template with features that are built-in but unused, that can damage your load time. If you can afford to do so, creating your website from the ground up will ensure a better loading time.
- Images: Images that are not correctly sized will increase load times.
- Carousels and Sliders: These page elements also slow your website speed.
- Your choice of web hosting company and server.
- Too Many Plugins: Plugins can add great functionality to your website, but they can also slow things down if you have too many.
We Understand Your Need for Speed!
My Content Co knows how to create fast, engaging and effective websites, just like you know how to grow your small business. We specialize in creating websites, blogs, social media posts and newsletters that are consistent with your brand.
Partner with us to see real growth from your content marketing. Visit us online or contact us today at 410-324-3934 to get started.