Care About the Speed of Your Website

In order to keep up with the pace, organizations must have fast-loading websites.  There are two main reasons for this – Firstly, the positive impact on users while using your website. Secondly, the impact of page load times can have on your website’s search engine ranking.

Have a look at the impact of website speed on your business, some of the causes of a slow-loading website, and what you can do to minimize page load times.

Why Website Speed Matters?

#1. Effect on Search Engine Rankings

We all know that site visitors hate slow-loading pages.  The statistics on user copyengagement and website page load speed are more dramatic than we expect.  Google, during testing of the way they display search results, found that a half-second rise in the time it took the search engine to show off results caused a 20% fall in traffic among test participants.

For e-commerce website development companies, the effect of slow page loads can be even harsher.  Amazon found that a 100-millisecond delay in the page load time could lead to a 1% drop in revenue. When the websites load quickly, it helps organizations receive a good amount of goodwill from the visitors. Web sites like Google are being widely used by users because they value the service on offer.

This means that if your website isn’t loading quickly, you are running the risk of turning away potential customers before they even had a chance to get to know your business.

What Might Be Slowing Down Your Website?

#2. User Engagement

We all know that site visitors hate slow-loading pages.  The statistics on user engagement and website page load speed are more dramatic than we expect.  Google, during testing of the way they display search results, found that a half-second rise in the time it took the search engine to show off results caused a 20% fall in traffic among test participants.

For e-commerce website development companies, the effect of slow page loads can be even harsher.  Amazon found that a 100-millisecond delay in the page load time could lead to a 1% drop in revenue. When the websites load quickly, it helps organizations receive a good amount of goodwill from the visitors. Web sites like Google are being widely used by users because they value the service on offer.

This means that if your website isn’t loading quickly, you are running the risk of turning away potential customers before they even had a chance to get to know your business.

What Might Be Slowing Down Your Website?

#3. Awful Site Design

Websites built with bad design can impact page load times negatively. Even many well-built WordPress themes are among the slowest websites because of the huge volume of code they run and database requests they make on each page load. Moreover, the number and type of plug-ins installed on your WordPress website can also take a substantial toll.

#4. Poor Hosting

The hosting provider and the hosting package you choose for your website can have a major impact on its performance. Prior to choosing a web host, you ought to be well-aware of its reputation for performance. Also, you need to understand the different kinds of web hosting available, and which is the best option for your website?

#5. Heavy Files

Large image and other media files can increase the time it takes for a webpage to load. It is better to load smaller files or compress them before uploading.

Some Helpful Tools :

There are some online tools that can help you evaluate loading times, determine problems, and get advice on fixes, too. The following tools are recommended:

  • Web Page Test: Primarily developed by AOL and now supported by Google, the web page test is an excellent tool to check the speed performance of your website. All you need to do is to is to paste your website’s URL, location, and the type of the browser and start the test. It will perform three test and will show you results broken down in sections combining initial loading time, page size, and full loading time.
  • Google PageSpeed Insights: If you want an overall speed rating and ways to improve it, then Google PageSpeed Insights is a great tool to utilize. As you type your website’s URL and hit the analyze button, google will demonstrate you the performance rating of the particular website page for both mobiles and desktops. Apart from that, it will also tell you what is lacking and how to fix the issue.
  • Pingdom: With Pingdom, you can set a location from where you want your website to be tested. Upon completion, it will show the load time, performance grade, and page size of your web page. It thoroughly analyzes the performance glitch and returns back to you with valuable tips such as: if you are using more numbers of JavaScripts then it would inform you that all these should be combined into as few as possible.

Wrapping up :

Website speed has undoubtedly great effect on how long visitors and customers will spend on your website, which in turn affects the effectiveness of your website. It also has a negative effect on your conversion rate. Furthermore, powerful search engines like Google take website speed into consideration when they assess your site for search engine rankings. Hence, for both the reasons, improving website speed is the right move for your organization.

To do this, the super-saving way is to ensure your website is designed well, avoid heavy media files, and hosted with a suitable webhost with the right type of hosting package.

 Author Bio

Rahul Mathur is the founder and managing director of the ARKA Softwares, a company renowned for its outstanding mobile app development and website development solutions as well as high-end digital marketing services. He is an avid reader and writer of technology related articles and blogs.