5 Reasons Why You Cannot Ignore Your Website’s Speed

A website is the virtual presence of your business and you would want it to be absolutely the best. Beyond the look and features it offers, there are a number of factors that make a website a great one. The most important among these factors is the speed of your website.

Just consider how long your site takes to load and whether you would expect the visitors to wait that long. Obviously, they will not stop if the loading time is even a few seconds more than expected.

Before you think about optimizing the loading speed, you need to know why it is so important. How can just a second or two make a difference? Here are the reasons that you must prioritize your website’s speed at all times.

Makes the first impression on the user

Making a great first impression with your site is mandatory, considering the huge competition out there. Anything that the users find below par can drive them away for good. If the website loads fast, it will be a win-win situation because the visitors get instant gratification.

On the other hand, slow loading speed can get across a bad impression because users often associate speed with trust and efficiency. What makes the first impression critical is the fact that internet users seldom give you a second chance. If they are not happy with the experience the first time, don’t expect them to be back.

Speed determines User Experience

Without any doubt, user experience is the most important aspect of a website’s success. A good UX design is one parameter that can actually make you stand apart from the competition. Essentially, a good UX design aspires to create a simple yet fantastic experience for the visitors.

This depends on giving them what they are looking for and giving it fast. So a lightning-fast speed is what they really expect as a part of UX and would not settle for anything less. Every time they visit your website, make sure that they get the best UX with a top-notch and seamless loading experience.

Google expects speed

Another reason why website speed matters are that it keeps your website up on the ranking front. Google expects websites to load fast and considers it as a significant ranking factor. Unless you excel in this aspect, don’t expect to be ranked on the first page of searches.

There is much you can do to ensure a good ranking. Blake Davis from Digitrio.com.sg explains that optimizing your images is key to improving the speed of your website, which is important in improving your search engine rankings. Being there matters because it enhances the visibility and trust for your website, both of which are essential to driving traffic.

Slow speed affects conversions

Beyond visibility and traffic, conversions are what really matter for any business website. They generate revenues and profits for your business and keep it up and running. Speed has a far-reaching impact on the conversion rate of your site as well.

Primarily, your visitors will not even wait to access your website if it loads slowly. Even if they drop in, chances are that they will abandon when the inner pages compromise with the loading speed. This means that you are losing your chances to convert them. Low conversions and abandoning visitors are killers for any website because they ultimately affect your business in the form of loss in revenues.

Affects the site’s credibility as well

The long-term impact of poor speed on your business site can be drastic because it affects your credibility. Besides just causing a drop in the number of visitors, it can also have an adverse impact on their trust. No one would want to come back to your website again and neither would they recommend it to anyone else. So word-of-mouth is where you lose in a big way. The disadvantages of slow speed do not end here. Established sites no longer want to link back to your content, which adversely affects your domain authority. In the long run, slow leading speed can hurt your brand more than you can imagine.

Seeing these reasons, it becomes clear that website speed is a factor that businesses cannot afford to overlook at any cost. So you need to keep an eye on it constantly. Besides constant monitoring, you also need to follow the best measures and practices for speed optimization. The objective is to ensure that your site always remains on the top, both in terms of user experience and search rankings.