Website loading speed – is it important?
People are using their mobile devices more often than ever before. This doesn't change the fact that website performance, including mobile sites, leaves much to be desired. Sites often fail to meet user expectations. Website loading speeds significantly impact not only the shopping experience but also search engine rankings!
Website loading speed – optimize as soon as possible!
Today, customers are increasingly savvy and expect fast, responsive, and mobile-friendly websites. Unfortunately, these undervalued micro-moments, so crucial to customers, are being ignored even by the world's largest brands.
Currently, approximately 30% of retail transactions are conducted via smartphones, and the average page load time in 2016 was 6,9 seconds . It's worth noting that, according to recent research, if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 40% of consumers abandon it out of impatience. Nearly 80% of customers who waited for the page to load were dissatisfied with the website experience, which in every case resulted in slow loading of subsequent pages, leading to a lack of willingness to complete the transaction and make a purchase.
For website owners, it's crucial to know that they don't need to be programmers to improve their website loading speeds. In most cases, websites based on content management systems have free plugins that optimize image size or manage the website cache.
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It is worth emphasizing that customers are less likely to convert on websites with long content loading times, and even less likely to have a mobile version of the website, because very often the transaction starts on a mobile device and ends on a computer.
Website Loading Speed – Possible Causes and Actions
A website consists of many elements. The most important factors influencing page load time are the number of page elements, the number of images on the page, and their size. The more elements on a page, the greater the page's weight and complexity. A typical page today weighs 2,486 KB , and despite its small size, it is unpredictable due to unoptimized data stored on the server. This causes the page to load unstable and take a long time.
As a website owner, you can solve your page load time problem by improving performance. This means that if you want your page to load within three seconds, you need to eliminate unnecessary page elements that slow down loading times.
Another factor is the number of images. Standard graphic elements also include favicons, logos, and product images, which can comprise up to two-thirds of a page's total weight. Underestimating the number and size of images results in slow page loading, which in turn leads to customers abandoning the products or services offered on the site. To ensure that page loading speed isn't slowed down by images, website owners should verify that the files are formatted correctly. For example, it's a good idea to convert PNG files to simple JPEG graphics. Advanced website optimization tools and techniques are also available for those who want to maximize their website 's performance.
Page loading speed and bounce rate.
Page load speed has a significant impact on bounce rate, which measures the percentage of visitors who leave a website without going beyond the first page. This demonstrates the importance of page load speed. The overall page load time (in seconds to fully load), including images, fonts, CSS code, and so on, had the greatest impact on whether a user stays on the site. It turns out that an average page load time of 2,5 seconds creates a good first impression and leads to conversions.
So how can you do it faster? Start by understanding the importance of optimizing your website. Your first step might be to test your website's performance using https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the impact of loading speed on the quality of the website's use and its position in search results,
- the importance of website responsiveness and performance in the context of growing mobile traffic,
- optimizing page elements such as images and code to improve performance,
- the relationship between website load time, conversions and user first impressions.
