Website Speed: Why It Matters and How to Improve Yours

As a small business owner, you’re always looking to optimize your profit. A major way to do that is by optimizing your products and services to keep customers happy – happy customers mean repeat business, and they mean referrals. Making customers happy these days may very well start with your website. Simply Put: website speed can make or break a conversion. Customers these days want immediate gratification, and many would rather back out of your website and go to a competitor if your page load time needs to be faster. And the statistics back this up.

Core web vitals are essential metrics for measuring website performance and user experience. They focus on key aspects like website speed, with particular emphasis on Largest Contentful Paint, which is critical for user satisfaction.

What is Website Speed?

Website speed refers to the time it takes for a website to load and become interactive. It is a critical factor in determining the user experience and search engine rankings of a website. A fast website speed is essential for providing a good user experience, as it allows users to quickly access the information they need and navigate through the site efficiently. On the other hand, a slow website can lead to high bounce rates, decreased conversions, and lower search engine rankings.

Website Speed Statistics

The statistics surrounding slow website speed paint a scary picture. Let’s take a look:
• As page load time goes from 1 to 5 seconds, a user’s bounce probability increases by 90%.
• 74% of mobile users in the US would abandon a website if it didn’t load within 5 seconds.
• A 1-second delay can decrease customer satisfaction by 16%, and lower the conversion rate by 7%.

Sources: Think with Google, LoadStorm

The Importance of Website Speed

Website speed is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it affects the user experience, as a slow website can frustrate users and lead to a negative perception of the brand. Secondly, it impacts search engine rankings, as search engines like Google take into account the loading speed of a website when determining its ranking. Finally, website speed can also affect conversions, as a slow website can lead to a lower conversion rate.

Factors Affecting Website Speed

There are several factors that can affect website speed, including:

Server response time: The time it takes for the server to respond to a request from a user’s browser.
Network latency: The time it takes for data to travel from the server to the user’s browser.
Browser caching: The process of storing frequently-used resources locally on the user’s browser to reduce the number of requests made to the server.
Content compression: The process of compressing files to reduce their size and improve transfer time.
Image optimization: The process of optimizing images to reduce their file size and improve page load time.

Google Will Penalize Slow Sites

Google likes speed just like your prospective customers. Google’s algorithms will place fast-loading sites higher in the search results, as long as they are relevant. What this means is that if your website and your main competitor’s websites have similar content and similar navigation, as well as SEO optimization, your competitor’s site will still come up higher in the search results if their site loads quickly, while yours is slow as a sloth.

Google Website Speed Test

To make things easier for business owners and webmasters, Google’s Page Speed Insights features a website speed test you can use to check out how your website is doing. Be sure to run it on both your desktop and mobile phone to see the difference. Pretty much every website is going to have some issues that Google points out. It’s our job to fix those issues and get your website running fast and smoothly.

Measuring Website Speed

There are several tools available to measure website speed, including:

Page speed test tools: These tools analyze the loading speed of a website and provide recommendations for improvement.
Website speed test tools: These tools measure the loading speed of a website and provide a score based on its performance.
Browser developer tools: These tools provide detailed information about the loading speed of a website and can be used to identify performance bottlenecks.

How to Increase Your Website Speed

Unless you’re a web developer, it’s a good idea to leave most of this to your SEO company. Tinkering under the hood when you’re not an expert can do more harm than good. With that warning, let’s get into how to increase your website speed.

Compress Images

Large images on your website can slow down page load time by quite a bit. If your website has a large Gallery of finished projects or a large number of products for sale, it’s especially important to optimize images for speed. WordPress has a plug-in that can do this for you.

Reduce and Minify Your Code

By reducing CSS and JavaScript at the top of the website and deferring it to the footer, you decrease the page load time for the user. The top of the page loads quickly while the bottom of the page that they can’t see yet loads. You can also use a plugin to minify your code.

Allow Caching

Allow web page caching. Your website tells the user’s device to hold onto, or cache, your website for future use. Allowing caching will speed up website load speed for repeat visitors.

Delete Unused Plugins

If you have a WordPress website, you may be constantly installing new plugins to take advantage of cool new features. But this can slow your website down, especially if you’ve had it a while. Go in and delete plugins you no longer use or need.

Check Your Hosting Provider

In addition to streamlining your website to reduce clutter and optimize everything, you should check to make sure your hosting provider isn’t holding you back. It’s OK to make the switch from your existing hosting provider if you do your homework and find one that can save you vital seconds.

As you can see, seconds matter. Shaving a second or 2 off of your page load time can mean increased site visits and increased conversions. And of course, increased conversions mean increased business and increased profits.

Your website speed is one of many components that affect how high you place in the search results when someone is looking for the goods or services you provide. To see how search engine optimization can help your business, schedule a FREE SEO analysis. Just call 410-420-9390 or use our contact form.

Over the years, we’ve helped hundreds of Maryland small business owners get the most out of their websites. We primarily work with businesses in Harford County, Baltimore County, and Cecil County.

Advanced Optimization Techniques

There are several advanced optimization techniques that can be used to improve website speed, including:

Content delivery networks (CDNs): These networks distribute content across multiple servers to reduce the distance between users and the website.
Caching: This technique stores frequently-used resources locally on the user’s browser or on a server to reduce the number of requests made to the server.
Minification and compression: These techniques reduce the size of files to improve transfer time.
Image lazy loading: This technique loads images only when they are visible in the viewport to reduce the initial page load time.
Code splitting: This technique splits code into smaller chunks to reduce the initial page load time.