Are slow site speeds costing you sales?

Despite the fact that site speed has an impact on user experience, many webmasters are willing to compromise on it, if it means installing a fabulous new web design or a set of nifty widgets. The problem with this is that if your website loads slowly, it is unlikely that visitors will ever stick around long enough to see your fantastic web design or use your highly functional widgets. Site speed is much more important than you think and could be a reason why your sales figures are low.

What is classed as a slow site speed?

This will vary depending on whom you ask, but the industry standard for site speed is just three seconds. According to a study by KISSmetrics, forty per cent of people abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. To find out how long your site takes to load you can use online tools like Pingdom.

Slow websites are inconvenient and defeat the point of the internet being a fast way for users to access the information they need. If your website takes more than three seconds to load, it is likely that visitors will click off and buy the products they need from elsewhere, causing you to miss out on potential sales. According to KISSmetrics, a one second delay in page response can result in a seven per cent reduction in conversions. This shows just how costly slow site speeds can be for your business.

Slow site speeds will also affect your website’s SEO. Google includes site speed and page loading times as factors in its search ranking formula. This is due to the fact that site speeds affects user experience and also your website’s bounce rate.

If your website has a high bounce rate, search engines will assume that it is because it is not providing visitors with the information they require and will therefore rank it poorly. The real reason your site may have a high bounce rate may be due to the fact that it takes too long to load and visitors are not willing to wait. Either way, it will have a negative impact on your search rankings.

If site speed is affecting your website’s rankings, search engines will not drive as much traffic through to your website, giving you less chance to make sales.

There are many things you can do to speed up your ecommerce website. One of the first things you should do is to check that your hosting is meeting the needs and requirements of your website. If your website host is causing your site to load slowly, it is definitely worth investing in an upgrade.

Unnecessary content may also be the cause of poor site loading speeds. If you have filled your webpages with large images and video files, these will take time to load. It is important only to use images and videos if they add value to your website. If they are just there to fill the space, get rid of them, as they will be causing your site speed to lag.

Whilst plugins may benefit your website in many ways, unfortunately they can have a negative impact on your site speed. Again, it is important to only use plugins if they add value to your website. If they are inactive or are not being used by site visitors, make sure they are uninstalled.

Contact a Company like Fluid Digital Web Design to seek professional advice on speeding up your website.

Fast loading websites are not longer a luxury, but a necessity in the eyes of users. For more information about how you can boost your site speed or to find out how to speed up Magento, feel free to get in touch with the team here at Fluid Digital.