The importance of website speed has been growing since the dawn of the internet, now, in 2021, it is important more than ever, especially as Google continually changes its algorithm that heavily focuses on the speed and performance of a website. For search engine optimisation (SEO), Google cares heavily about your user experience (UX) and by having a fast and high-performing website, you will have a better UX which Google favours. But, importantly, your website speed can have an explicit implication on helping your business to convert. So how does having a faster website help businesses to convert more?
How can a Fast Website Help your Business Convert?
1) Customer Expectations
The customer’s expectation of a web page has been increasing for some time now and 2021 follows the same pattern. Users want fast-loading websites, website speed is important for both desktop and mobile, but with extra emphasis on mobile page load speed.
I) Fast Loading Webpages
As mobile users have overtaken desktop users for the last couple of years, it is important to provide a more efficient user experience on mobiles. Websites need to be mobile responsive, easy-to-use and, importantly, get the user to where they need to go. However, if your website is slow then you will likely lose your potential customer to a competitor’s website in which they do not have to wait on. Studies have been carried out and, on an estimate, 40% of consumers are not willing to wait longer than 3 seconds for a webpage to load, before they abandon a website. No matter your industry, your webpage must meet these standards to stay competitive.
There are many free website speed tests you can do, we recommend using Google’s PageSpeed Insights test for a comprehensive website speed analysis. Additionally, you can learn how to analyse the results from this informative article.
II) Return Visitors
Customer loyalty is becoming less apparent, especially for the millennial and gen-z population. Less and less consumers are aligned to specific brands and are more than willing to switch brands if it meets certain standards. One of these standards could simply be a webpage that loads faster than another. This is especially prevalent in e-commerce websites and in the retail and travel industries. If your UX is not up to standards, if your website loads slowly, then you could give your potential customers a bad website experience, in which an estimate of 79% will unlikely return to the website, or purchase again from a company is provided with a bad user experience. Other studies also show that 46% of users will simply not even revisit a website that performs badly, which could be by having slow load speeds.
Therefore, if your website does not meet customer’s expectations, then you can expect to see a lot less traffic, fewer visitors and fewer return visitors for your business, all of which translates to fewer conversions. As little as a one-second delay can equal a loss of 70% in conversions, something that can be fixed with some professional web development, oversight and monitoring. Do not let your business underperform because you provide a bad user experience for your customers.
2) SEO
Your search engine optimisation is directly affected by the speed and performance of your website. As previously mentioned, Google wants to provide websites that have a good user experience, so, if your user experience is good, ie. your web pages load fast, then Google will also favour your website. Fast loading websites will directly impact your SEO which also has a direct effect on your business’s conversions.
I) Organic Traffic
As your SEO scores improve you will see increases in organic traffic. Organic traffic is any traffic to your website that comes from users simply searching keywords on search engines such as Google and Bing. For example, if I search ‘Web design services’ and click on one of the websites (not an ad) this would be organic traffic to that website. Google favouring your website will lead to you ranking highly on the search engine, the same applies to other search engines such as Bing. Therefore, you will gain more organic traffic with a faster website speed. Now, as your business experiences more users on your website, you will, in turn, generate more conversions, whether that is product sales or leads through contact forms and enquiries. The same applies to brick-and-mortar stores, the more people in your shop, the more likely that you will earn a consumer’s business.
II) Page Views
By keeping a high-performing and fast-loading website, your page views will also increase. This is a collection of views across all of your web pages. If your website is slow, then users will less likely bounce from page to page on your website, because of their patience running out. However, if your website’s user experience is good then your page views will likely increase. But what is the importance of having more page views? Simply, you will be able to show more to potential customers, you will have more popularity across your website and you could have more than one of your web pages rank highly. More page views = more of your company seen by a user, which can lead to more conversions.
Meeting Customer Expectations = SEO = Conversions
We have, therefore, laid out a sort of funnel to follow, that all begins with a fast and high-performing webpage. Think of it like road traffic, imagine you’re going to the shop to buy something, but you’re stuck in your car and experiencing delays. This can deter you from reaching your final destination or you can even switch to a more convenient and easier shop to go to, that has fewer delays in reaching. Now, imagine there are no delays on the road, you can simply get to the shop and buy what you are looking for. If you have a lot of customers and they each have this quick experience, the business will convert a lot more. Your website needs to allow customers (users) to get to the right page quickly so they can buy, the more delays you put in, the less likely you will convert.
To put it in perspective, if Amazon was one second slower, this could cost the company $1.6 billion in sales every year! Now, this is using one of the biggest companies in the world as an example, but it portrays the importance of website speed perfectly.
Therefore, we cannot stress enough how important it is to have your website optimised for fast loading times. If you wish to consult our website speed experts and even have a free consultation of your website, you can contact us directly at info@absolute-websites.com. For more information on website speed optimisation, we recommend you check out our page and see how we can help you.
