4 Reasons Why Page Speed Could Be Impacting Your Online Sales

The speed of your website is the first impression you make to a potential customer, if your website loads quickly you have already gained points for user experience. People generally don’t have the time to wait for a website to load, so now is the time to identify potential problems and take action before you risk potential customers abandoning your site and moving on. 

User Experience 

Having a website with all the latest features and the best content is worthless if your web pages take a year to load. We are all busy people and having to wait for a site to load is just frustrating, especially when there are other sites that load in half the time. As individuals we expect a page to be completely loaded in under two seconds, mental we know! Even if the user is patient enough to wait for your site to load they aren’t going to get the best experience when it finally does. A quick website is not only convenient but positions your brand as efficient, reliable and trustworthy. 

Decline in Search Engine Ranking 

When searching for something on the internet how many results do you consider before picking a website? It is unlikely you are going to choose from one of the last websites on the page. Studies show that 25% of people click on the first organic result they see, this is why search engine optimisation (SEO) should be a key factor in your marketing strategy. There are many factors that enable websites to rank at, or near the top, how quickly your website loads is one of them, if users are leaving a site swiftly this is flagged by the search engine. Google wants users to have the best experience and therefore will rank unsatisfactory, irrelevant websites lower as they are not offering the desired experience. 

Increase in Bounce Rate 

Simply, the longer your site takes to load the higher bounce rate you’ll receive in return. As page load time goes from 1s to 5s bounce rate increases by 90%, to put it into perspective a bounce rate of 40% or lower is recognised as healthy site performance. A lot of the time the reason a visitor leaves a webpage too soon is down to the site’s performance. 

Fall in Web Traffic

Whether you are browsing on desktop, mobile or tablet, Google pays attention to website speeds when ranking websites. So, if your site is slow not only does it have a negative effect on your position in search results but reduces your visibility and overall organic traffic. If the user doesn’t give up before the page has loaded they definitely aren’t going to attempt to navigate through multiple pages. By having a slow site you are theoretically locking the door and turning people and potential sales away.

Get Help With Your SEO Today

Do you want to ensure that the above 4 points aren’t driving organic traffic away from your site? Our team of specialists can work with you to produce a strategy to make sure your website is performing at its best. Increasing your exposure, driving traffic and conversions. Get in touch with our team today.