3 Reasons Why Website Speed Is Important
Website speed helps create the first impression of a site and the business behind it for visitors. Developers and testers invest a great deal of effort into making a website visually appealing and functional by adding various features, content, and functionality. However, if these features or content are not properly optimized, they can negatively impact the website’s loading speed.
How fast a website loads is important to every visitor. Research shows that 47% of people expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
Speed is a critical part of the user experience, especially for e-commerce websites, where every second of delay can cost millions. This article outlines three key reasons why website speed is important and why optimizing it is essential.
1. Fast Speed Delivers an Impressive User Experience
As mentioned earlier, when a customer or visitor opens a website for the first time, they expect it to load quickly—within three seconds. For businesses online, first impressions are vital. Speed plays a decisive role in how audiences perceive a brand on the web.
It is human nature to associate a faster website with being more reliable and professional. Conversely, a slow website is usually frustrating for users. Most will bounce immediately and look for other, faster websites to meet their needs. Reversing this negative impression can be extremely difficult.
A study also reveals that 40% of people abandon a site completely if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Therefore, to deliver an impressive user experience to first-time visitors, a website must load quickly every time it is accessed.
2. Speed Affects a Website’s SEO Ranking
Google has openly stated that they are obsessed with speed for every product on the web. Matt Cutts, former head of Google’s webspam team, officially confirmed that Google considers fast loading speed a positive ranking factor.
However, Google also noted that website owners should not compromise on content quality or relevance just to make their web pages faster.
As such, to rank well on Google, teams must ensure that their web pages are optimized to load faster. Higher rankings lead to growth in organic traffic, which is critical for businesses.
3. Speed Impacts Conversions
Keep in mind that Google penalizes websites with low page load speeds. More importantly, if pages take too long to render, customers or visitors will stop returning to those sites. This results in lost leads and revenue.
This is especially relevant for e-commerce sites. A one-second delay can lead to a 7% drop in conversions. For example, if an e-commerce site earns $50,000 per day, a one-second delay could potentially result in a loss of about $1.28 million annually.
To succeed online, having a fast website is non-negotiable. A fast-loading site not only provides a good user experience but also helps create a lasting positive impression among customers. Therefore, optimizing page load speed is crucial for every web developer and tester and should be a top priority from the very beginning of development sprint cycles.