Page Speed dictates the success of an online business as Google has made it a major ranking factor. A website performance optimization action is needed to keep your business on top. Mediocre website performance negatively impacts any online business. A slow-loading website might cause frustration in users and they might look for alternatives. Therefore, your competition wins. Nowadays, we think the lack of patience is the most common trait in online user behaviour as “53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.” The good news is that page speed is not hard to improve. In this article, we will talk about the importance of website loading time, tools, tips and tricks, and technical implementations you can use for a faster website, increased traffic, and higher search engine rankings. What is Page Speed? Page Speed refers to the time frame at which an individual page is downloaded from the website hosting servers and displayed onto the requesting web browser. Page load time means the duration between clicking the link and displaying the entire content from the web page on the requesting browser. If your web page takes a long time to load, that can indicate a server problem. Besides users not liking a slow website, Google does not tolerate a low page speed and your website’s rank will get affected. A website is slow if it takes longer than 0.4 seconds to load. Specialists from Microsoft and Harry Shum, the computer scientist, think that the optimal page load time is 0.25 seconds. This is believed to be the time that dictates the competitive advantages of online businesses. It is important to keep in mind that Page Speed is a crucial factor that determines the success of your business, especially when 47% of consumers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less.

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Page Speed Metrics Page Speed has several components to it and we consider all of them to have the same importance. The most important metrics that outline page speed are:

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Time to First Byte or TTFB is a metric that evaluates the time until a page begins the loading process; Fully Loaded Page is self-explanatory and refers to the time it takes for the desired page to load 100%. This metric is the most direct way to measure page speed. First Meaningful Paint / First Contextual Paint refers to the time it takes to load enough resources on a webpage to be readable. This metric has changed after Google’s Update in May 2020 and was replaced by the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric, which now measures the time it takes until the page’s main content has loaded. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is also a new metric launched in May 2020, and it refers to the layout’s stability during loading. How Important Is Page Speed? Page speed is a crucial factor not only for user experience but also for your digital marketing strategy. From our experience, a low-performing website has a huge negative impact on: Time on site or how long a user stays on your website. When your website’s loading speed is very slow, the bounce rate becomes higher. Conversions. The chances of converting a user into a buyer will get higher when your website has a high performance. Google Ads. The Cost Per Click (CPC) in paid search will be higher for slow sites. Rankings. Google penalises slow loading websites, affecting the website’s position in SERP (search engine results page), and therefore will decrease the organic traffic. Most websites have bad performances when it comes to page speed. Unfortunately, optimizing the page speed is on the backlist of most business owners. This fact is understandable as most people don’t really understand its importance and often neglect it. As shown in this research by MachMetrics, the majority of sites have a load time between 8-11 seconds. It might not seem very long, but in reality, the longer the loading time, the more visitors and customers you will lose. The bottom line is that page speed is very important when it comes to Google rankings, website traffic, lead generation, and conversions. We will discuss this topic in more detail in the following chapters. Why Page Speed Matters? If you are not yet convinced that page speed is an aspect that affects more sides of your business, we made a list of the most important factors that affect the prosperity of an online business when user requirements regarding the performance of a website are not met. Sales The performance of a website is translated as user experience which inspires online sales and therefore, business success. Not meeting consumer expectations regarding website loading time will have a tremendous impact on business revenue. 14% of online users will start shopping from a different website if page loads are slow. Conversions Conversions are the most important and powerful metric for online businesses. Digital marketing campaigns cannot boost conversions without improvements in the website’s user experience. Here we are talking about page speed and website responsiveness. You can bring users to a website through marketing planning and advertising campaigns. Most of the time, when users enter a website with a purchasing mindset, they don’t leave without buying. But it’s important for users to get their required information within a few seconds as 23% of online users will stop shopping or even exit the website if their expectations are not met, and therefore, you will lose conversions. User Experience When talking about user experience in terms of website performance and responsiveness, we think this is the ultimate factor impacting the conversion rate. eCommerce is all about meeting user’s expectations and reaching potential customers with the right information, product, or service at the right time. None of this will be possible without a proper page speed. In case you are not aware of how much page speed affects your conversions, you can test it by using Google’s Test My Site tool to get your answer. User Engagement User engagement is a powerful metric for website analysis that’s taken into account when developing the strategies to increase online sales. The competitive environment of online businesses is based on the importance of website performance. Take advantage of tools that can analyze and anticipate the next best actions regarding the interaction between page speed and revenue. The “recipe of success” for an online business is enhanced user engagement with responsiveness and super fast loading websites. Revenue Investing in website performance to accelerate the page speed within a few seconds will show an increase in revenue, will decrease operational costs, and hardware investments. As an example, Shopzilla had a 50% reduction in the operational budget by getting the page load from 7 to 2 seconds and increased revenue by 12%. Moreover, website improvements lead to a better AdWords Quality Score and therefore the Cost per Click (CPC) is cheaper. Having a high-quality score and a good page speed means that the marketing budget will be spent more effectively and efficiently, maximizing reach and attracting new customers. Usability Usability refers to giving users the needed information clearly and concisely. The important items need to be placed in appropriate areas and the content to work on various devices and browsers. Users expect from a website to be easy to operate and navigate, to receive relevant information, to be responsive and to deliver information, products or services with minimum effort from their part. Fewer clicks or actions from the customer side will result in better usability. Site speed Is A Ranking Factor Page Speed is also a crucial factor from an SEO perspective. Since 2010, Google is considering the page speed a ranking factor. More than that, in 2018 Google ramped up, even more, the importance of this aspect. And with the core update rolled out in May 2020, Google made it clear page speed is crucial. As a bottom line, a slow loading website is going to hurt your Google ranking. Page Speed and SEO Page speed is one of the most important user-centric performance metrics and also a very important metric for search engines. Imagine that you put a lot of effort into your website to perform well, have a great structure, is wonderfully targeted, and has relevant content, but this won’t be the first contact that your potential client will have with your online business. In the real world, a user’s first experience with your website will be the loading speed. If it takes a lot of time for your landing page to load, your whole work will not deliver wanted results and it will result in a serious drop-off and fewer visitors. On mobile devices, site speed can be even more of an issue. Google found that the average mobile sites take over 15 seconds. Users expect the loading speed on mobile to be under 3 seconds. Every second counts, especially on eCommerce sites, where one extra second in load time can decrease conversion rate by 25%. We suggest to take into consideration the following reasons to improve the loading speed from an SEO point of view: Site speed is a crucial ranking factor. From 2018, Google’s Speed Update made site speed a ranking factor for mobile searches and slow sites are penalized. Fast loading sites are easier to crawl. Bigger websites have more impact on speed optimizations. If you have a fast server, Googlebot will come more often and will crawl your website faster. A fast site has higher conversion rates. A goal to have in mind is to be faster than your competitors. By having a fast site you are improving conversion rate, building trust, and creating brand loyalty. 52% of online shoppers consider quick page loads important for their loyalty to a website. The lower the wait time, the lower the bounce rate. If your website doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less, people will hit the back button without any hesitation and they might never return. Better user experience.