If you’ve noticed a high bounce rate or low conversion on your website, you may wonder, “Does website page speed really matter?” At Rival Digital, we know a successful digital marketing campaign requires a comprehensive approach. We optimize your website performance and your search engine rankings so you can focus on serving your customers.
What Is Site Speed?
Site speed is considered lab data: a ranking factor in search engine optimization. This means that low loading speeds can increase your ranking on Google and other search engines.
Slow pages can also affect user experience. You should aim for a load time of under two seconds, but the faster your web page loads, the better.
How do you determine your site’s page speed? You can perform a page speed analysis using Google Pagespeed Insights, which also provides other insights into the user experience on both desktops and mobile devices and offers suggestions for improvement. Google Lighthouse provides additional tools for assessing the performance of any website and easy ways you can improve it.
Why You Should Avoid Slow Loading Speed
What happens when you avoid a low website speed? A fast load speed can improve business performance in a few different ways.
Improved Conversion Rates
Does website page speed really matter? Yes, because it affects your conversion rate.
Conversion rate compares the number of people who visit your website to those who take a specific action like booking an appointment. For example, if you have 1,000 visitors a month and 200 of them schedule service, you have a conversion rate of 20%.
If your website’s performance doesn’t meet customer expectations, they may think you don’t have the attention to detail required to satisfy them. If you don’t want a low-quality website to project you have low-quality service, ensure your pages load quickly.
Lower Bounce Rate
A site’s speed also directly affects your bounce rate. A high bounce means people quickly leave your web pages rather than clicking through to other pages.
When a customer has a need, they don’t want to wait for your website to fully load. Speed matters because if customers have to wait more than two seconds, they’ll exit out and go to your competitors who have optimized their site’s performance.
Enhanced Customer Experience
Loading speed comprises the core web vitals. This metric determines how enjoyable your website appears to potential customers. User experience also acts as a ranking factor for Google, the most popular search engine and the primary focus of SEO campaigns.
You should ensure both mobile users and desktop users have an enjoyable experience. Because mobile devices usually have slower connections, mobile sites often load more slowly. When analyzing your performance with Pagespeed Insights, ensure you test its mobile’s performance.
Increased SEO Ranking
Google considers load speed an important ranking factor. While an optimal page speed won’t skyrocket you to the top of Google’s search results, a slow one will prevent you from ranking high. Appearing high in search results gives you the competitive edge, so prioritize reducing your page speed.
Tips for Keeping Your Page Speed Fast
Does website page speed really matter? Yes, and if you’re not happy with your current page speed, you can improve it using the following techniques.
Reduce Page Weight
Page weight refers to the amount of data contained in a page’s main content. If you have significant video content, complex CSS code, or large javascript files, your customers may spend significant time loading an individual page.
To reduce loading times by modifying page weight, use the following methods:
- Only fill a page with relevant content
- Remove unused code
- Switch to a static HTML
- Use responsive images for visual stability
Change Host
You can’t control a user’s network, so if they’re experiencing slow loading speeds it may occur from factors you can’t manipulate. In this case, the customer may not hold this against you.
However, you should consider switching your hosting method to something like Cloudflare’s Content Delivery Network (CDN). A traditional hosting method draws from a centralized server, which often means data travels a significant distance to reach the user’s computer.
A CDN stores your website’s information on multiple servers spread throughout the world. This means when a person visits your website, they access the closest server and the information reaches them more quickly.
Rival Digital Can Improve Your Google Search Rankings
Does website page speed really matter? Yes, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed managing it, reach out to Rival Digital. We make your digital marketing successful with less stress and effort on your part.
To book a consultation, call 800-674-9823. Learn more today.
