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Why Website Load Speed Matters

Why Website Load Speed Matters

By Alex HayesPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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When you create and manage your website, what are the things that matter the most? Cool content? Definitely. Pleasant design? Sure. But what else?

All those elements are crucial for a successful website, but they will be of no use if your site loads for ages. Besides, without powerful CDN image hosting, your design may simply remain unappreciated as users will see nothing and leave your site.

Often, site owners take care of many aspects: they work out unique content, hire professionals, learn tools to monitor the site, add new interface elements — but they still struggle with the load speed of the site. It is tempting to think about website speed as something insignificant, but it may actually be the most important feature of your site.

In this article, we will give you some reasons why you should not underestimate the role of website speed.

Website Load Speed & E-commerce

Have you ever paid attention to how much time you are ready to wait till the site loads? If not, we have some stats for you. Half of the internet users are comfortable with waiting for two seconds for the content to show up. Of course, there are exceptions and some unique platforms can have the luxury of making their users wait — but even these websites are constantly trying to improve the load speed.

When it comes to e-commerce, creating a site that will work smoothly and fast is even more crucial. Your primary goal is to make customers buy your product. Unless you have a loyal client base that is ready to wait, you need to work on the website speed. Otherwise, all the money that you have spent on promotion and SEO will just go down the drain. How come?

Your potential customers googled the service they need, your website popped up on top, but it could not show them what they wanted quickly enough. As a result, they returned to the search results and clicked on the link of your competitor. That’s how you lose customers.

More Reasons Why Load Speed Matters

If you do not sell things online or you just need further evidence, here are more reasons why you should consider improving the load speed of your website.

#1. It creates a good first impression

When meeting new people, we pay attention to the first impression. In fact, it strongly affects our opinion of people and things. The same applies to websites.

We have already mentioned how vital the fast loading speed is for online stores, but it is actually true for any kind of website. People will not want to come back if they felt like they were waiting for ages to load your site. On the contrary, users will find it professional if your website loads quickly.

#2. It is a part of user experience

Your efforts to create a great UX design will be pointless if your website does not load fast enough. Users want high-quality content, nice design, but they also want it quickly. The two main things you need to consider when improving user experience is giving users what they want and giving it fast. These two components are crucial for any website.

#3. Load speed influences your Google metrics

If you want more visitors, you want Google (and other search engines) to be favorable to your site and show it on top of the search page. Probably, you have already implemented various SEO components, but load speed has been overlooked. It is indeed less important to Google than your site’s relevance, but the company has been consistent about their wish to make the internet faster. Hence, it may not be the most vital thing you need to think about when improving your Google stats, but it will still affect your website’s success.

How to Improve Load Speed

As we discussed the reasons why load speed matters so much, let’s now focus on the solutions. You may be wondering what you should do to improve the load speed of your website, and we have answers.

First of all, start using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for your website. This will significantly improve the stats, as the page is to load in a matter of seconds. The request from the device of your user, wherever he or she is, will be sent to the closest node, and not to the main server. The technology is very common nowadays, and many sites already use it.

Another helpful thing is to consider image optimization. If you run a website, you probably use a lot of visual content. Sometimes, site owners do not pay much attention to the file type or image size they use. Using the inappropriate file type or trying to insert a large photo may severely affect the load speed, so conduct an audit and decide how you can help your website. Image optimization includes, for example, opting for JPG images, if possible, and resizing your photos so that they are not too large.

In conclusion

Working towards the success of your website is a challenging day-to-day task. You have to take care of so many things, and it is easy to forget something. But sometimes, the overlooked element is the most important one. This is the case with load speed.

Without improving it, you will likely see a decrease in your stats and sales, and it will have a powerful long-term effect. Load speed does matter since your users want not only modern comprehensive design and useful content, they also want all these things quickly. And if you are unable to give it to them… Well, they will go elsewhere.

Pay attention to your site’s performance. It will take some time and investment to improve it, but you will see how beneficial your efforts are in no time.

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