Almost every online marketer agrees that speed is important for their online business, but exactly how big is its impact?
Site speed is a key determiner of success for online businesses, something which the infographic below, courtesy to HostingTribunal.com, shows all too clearly. Did you know that:
- 53% of visitors leave a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load
- A 1-second delay in page load time decreases customer satisfaction by 16%
- 75% of viewers don’t plan to revisit a web page with page load times of over 4 seconds
In other words, users hate slow sites – but they seem to be not the only ones.
Google, too, prefers fast, nimble web pages. While page load time is a minor search ranking factor, it can pull down your ranking on Google indirectly. Google sees high bounce rates as an indication of the lack of relevant content. In other words, for Google, a site with a high bounce rate offers less value to customers than a website with low bounce rate. And research shows that it penalizes websites that lack value.
Every online business needs a fast site, but perhaps e-stores more so because slow speed hurts them where it pains most – the bottom-line. Reports show that 64% of online buyers who are unhappy with their site experience will purchase from another site next time.
However, research also shows that the average page load time is 9.3 seconds. This means chances are many of your direct competitors also have slow sites and, because of it, many unhappy customers. If you can improve your page load times, you can well win over these customers, besides retaining yours and gain a competitive edge. So what does it take to speed up a slow site?
Compress Files
A web page is made of different elements, such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files, among other things. Page load time can take a hit if your files are bulkier. You can make your files leaner by using a compression tool, such as Gzip, which compresses data without affecting quality. It can boost your page load times by as much as 70%.
Therefore, you should contact your hosting provider immediately, who should be able to implement it easily.
Compress Images
It’s true that an e-commerce site can’t do without images. However, it is also true that very large image files can seriously delay page load time. An easy way to compress images is in WordPress is by using a plug-in called WP Smush.
The plugin has free and premium versions. Considering how important website speed is for your business, it makes much sense to make this investment if you have lots of images. To understand fully the massive importance of website speed, go through the catchy infographic. For more details, please see the detailed article on Hosting Tribunal.
