- 47% of people expect your website speed to load in less than 2 seconds.
- 40% will abandon it entirely if it takes longer than 3 seconds.
You get a little bit more room to move with mobile visitors, but not much.
- 85% of internet users expect a mobile site to load as fast or faster than on their desktop.
“If it’s fast, it must be professional!”
The reason why Website Speed is Needed:
1. Website speed is the first impression you ever make:
First impressions are vital on the web.
Your customers, readers, and website visitors make an instant judgment about you and your business.
If your website loads fast, you’ve instantly made a strong first impression. It’s a quick win for user experience! If it loads fast, your new visitor is immediately happy.
It’s pure psychology. We consider fast websites to be professional and reliable. We relate speed to efficiency, trust, and confidence.
A slow website, on the other hand, makes us think it’s unsafe, insecure, and untrustworthy. And it’s really difficult to turn around that negative first impression.
- 79% of online shoppers say they won’t go back to a website if they’ve had trouble with load speed.
You don’t get a second chance when it comes to user experience. Nearly 80% of your potential audience isn’t coming back.
2. We expect speed!
When we’re on the move, we tend to be even less patient. We want answers fast!
It’s clear that we all expect quick results whether we’re on a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. Think about how you use the internet every day. You’re looking for quick answers and immediate results.
When it comes to well-known and authoritative sites, people are willing to wait a little longer. If you’re Google or Facebook, visitors will tolerate a small delay, because they’re an established name.
Unfortunately, for small businesses and startups, you don’t always have that luxury. It’s best to be as fast as possible right from the start.
3. User experience
At its core, good UX design is all about creating a fantastic and simple experience for your visitors. There are two basic factors involved in a positive user experience:
- Give visitors what they’re looking for
- Give it to them fast.
That’s why website load speed is your number one priority when it comes to user experience. People visiting your website are looking for something. Give it to them as quickly as possible.
As soon as your visitors are confused or frustrated, you’ve done something wrong. And nothing frustrates us like a slow website!
4. Slow websites kill conversions
- 40% of people will abandon your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Now, let’s say 100,000 people visit your site every month. If you slowed down to 4 seconds, you could lose 40,000 potential customers.
If slow load speeds are driving people away, then it’s driving your sales away. This isn’t just speculation either. Some of the biggest companies on the planet have tested this out.
- Amazon did tests that showed they would lose $1.6 BILLION every year if they slowed down by just one second.
And Amazon is an established, recognizable company. If customers won’t wait just one extra second for Amazon, what chance have the rest of us got?
5. The long-term effect of slow website speed
We’ve established that slow loading speed leads to an instant drop-off in visitors. Nearly half of your potential visitors have already vanished. But there is a long-term effect here too. That long loading time gradually stunts your natural growth and word-of-mouth.
Customers slowly stop referring your service to others because of a poor experience. Established websites are less likely to link back to your content. It might even put people off signing up for your newsletter.
We often link a slow website to a lack of credibility, which may hurt your brand in the long run.
6. Website speed affects your Google rank
Google has a self-confessed love of speed.
“We’re striving to make the whole web fast”
They’re on a mission to make sure the internet is super speedy, easily accessible, and useful. So far, they’re doing a pretty good job.
There’s a lot of information out there about Google, load speed, and your search ranking. Some of it is true, and some of it is not so. Here’s what we know for sure from the mouths of Google itself.
- Google does take website load speed into account when ranking websites (announced in 2010)
- But, it is a very small ‘signal’ (compared to relevance and authority)
“While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal”
We hope this article helped you. If you have any questions regarding this article please comment below or message us anytime
