Do you know a slow website could kill your business? Recent data showed this for every additional section that it takes for your website to load cost you around 7% in conversions. This means that if your business makes $1 million annually, then a second delay could cost you up to $70,000.
Building a successful online presence is not just about creating a very attractive website and doing endless marketing; it is about ensuring that your website has a fast loading speed. In this case, many people have a preference for using a wordpress Tulsa Oklahoma agency to make sure the job is done right. Keep reading as we discuss in detail why your website speed matters.
What Is Website Load Speed, and Why Is it Important?
Website load speed refers to the time taken for your browser to receive information from the website. Although website load time depends on various factors like the amount of bandwidth in transit, browser, device type, among many others, a website speed should not be more than 2 seconds.
A slow website usually irritates users more than a website that is not working or temporarily down. For instance, in the United States, over 79% of adults find a slow website more annoying than one that is temporality down. Over 50% of Americans have reported that they feel much more negative towards a brand with a slow-loading website.
Just recently, Amazon, the largest online retail site in the world, revealed that a one-second delay could cost them about $1.6 billion in sales per year.
Google has also revealed that if their search result is slowed by just one second, they could lose up to 8 million searches daily, leading to a massive loss of revenue. These two examples show how much a business can lose if the site load speed slows down even by a second.
A fast website speed will result in a better user experience, while a slow website speed will result in a poor experience.
Multiple studies have shown that users are likely to stay long on sites with fast loading speed(below 2 seconds) and are also expected to take action, including signing for a newsletter, buying a product, booking an appointment, and much more.
In addition, a website that has fast loading speed has fewer bouncing rates, converts better, and ranks better on search engines.
Things That Slow Down Website Speed and Possible Solutions
Caching Issues
One of the top things that affect website loading speed is caching issues. Every time users visit your website, their browser usually stores crucial fills like CSS, Java files, and images for a specific period. Caching is useful, but it could slow down your website loading speed if it is not set correctly.
The best solution to this problem is developing a strong caching strategy that will ensure you enjoy all the benefits of this feature without slowing your site loading speed.
For instance, if your website is running on WordPress, you can use cache plugins to enhance your site speed. Those that don’t use WordPress can use cache control to prevent caching issues.
Your Site CSS Is Not Optimized
Your site loading speed can also reduce if your site CSS is not optimized. Fortunately, bringing your CSS back into order is quite simple. If you have multiple external CSS files, you should combine them into one file. Using inline CSS as opposed to external CSS can also increase your site speed.
Excessive Overhead in Your Database
Overhead refers to things transients, logs, among other things, from themes or plugins that make the site take a bit longer than usual to load pages. The best solution to this problem is to optimize your data by removing excessive overhead that is slowing down your site.
Outdated CMS
Your website speed could slow down if your site is running on an outdated CMS. The best solution to this is to ensure that you have the latest plugins and software versions. Fortunately, a majority of CMS like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress usually inform users when an update is available.
Broken Links
If you have many broken links on your site, then your site speed will slow down significantly. In addition to slowing down your site speed, broken links can also dent your ranking and reputation. Conduct a full link audit, then fix all broken links.
Unoptimized JavaScript
JavaScript is the code responsible for making your site interactive and functional to users. If it is not well optimized, then it can reduce your site speed.
When a browser tries to display a page, it has to fully load the JavaScript files first, and if the JavaScript is not well optimized, the loading speed will be very slow.
The best solution to this problem is to use inline JavaScript as opposed to external JavaScript files. You can also use asynchronous loading, where JavaScript file loads separately from the page.
Large Media Files
Another reason why your site could be loading slowly is because of multiple large media files like videos and images. The best solution to this is to optimize your media files through compression to reduce their size before uploading them. This will help to improve loading times.
Compressing videos is quite challenging. It is better to host them on other platforms such as YouTube than embed them on your site pages.
Other factors that can slow down your site loading speed include bulky site code, having too many unnecessary plugins, and missing files.
What will happen if your website takes too long to load
Nowadays, users expect websites to have fast load speed. If your site takes longer than expected to load, then below are some of the things that could happen.
High Bounce Rate
When your web pages take too long to load, your site user experience will take a bit hit. Then means that you are likely to see few visitors coming to your site.
You are also likely to see a high bounce rate because users will not enjoy navigating your website. With so many options available, customers are less likely to waste their time on a website that is taking too long to load.
They won’t hesitate to leave your website and look for another website that has fast loading sped. This will result in a high bounce rate.
Dented Reputation
Your business reputation will also take a big hit if your website lad speed reduces. Customers may have a negative perception of your business when your website takes too long to load.
Some customers may think that you lack credibility, while others may be of the notion that you are up for no good. They may even spread that news to their friends and family, which will have a huge negative effect on your business.
Decreased Revenue
Many visitors will avoid your website if it does not load fast. A low number of visitors means few leads and consequently decreased revenue for your business.
Lower-ranking on Search Engine
Search engines consider things like site load speed and bounce rate to determine a site ranking. So, if your website has a slow loading speed, then its ranking could be negatively affected.
If you own an online business, you should strive to ensure that your website loading speed does not slow down. Even a one-second delay can have a huge negative impact on your business.
It will not only cost you money but will also damage the business reputation that you have worked so hard to build. If you lack the expertise to keep your website speed fast, it is better to hire a professional to manage your site.
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