When customers visit a company's website, it's often important that their visit is turned into a sale. There are many things companies can do to increase the chance of this happening; from providing high-quality content to proving they're better than competitors, there are a lot of different tactics to try. But did you know that just a one-second delay in page loading can cause a reduction of 7% in conversions? This is why more and more companies are realizing the need to optimize their page speed. In this article, we're going to delve into why page speed is so important and how companies can reduce their page loading time.
Why Is Page Speed Important?
There are two main reasons why page speed is important. One of these reasons is to provide the best user experience possible. In today's digital world, people have grown used to getting fast results. So if they search for something and click on a slow-loading site, chances are they're going to take their business elsewhere. This means that companies with a slow page speed can see a higher bounce rate and overall decreased business. To provide the best user experience, businesses should ensure their pages load quickly and are easy to navigate.
The second reason page speed is important is for page rankings. Search engines like Google crawl websites, looking at features like keywords, links, and images in order to determine where they should show up in the results page. And last year, Google announced that they would start considering page speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches. With that in mind, if a company has a site that takes a long time to load, Google will not only lower the page's ranking, but it may also not be able to crawl all of the pages on the site. This could impact which pages are even considered to be web pages by Google. Overall, search engines are more likely to lead users to sites that have faster loading times.
How Can You Increase Your Page Speed?
Unforunately, there are quite a few factors that can lower page speed. Media like large images, embedded media, and advertisements can all impact loading time. This is because while the written content on the site may load quickly, images and other media can take longer to load. Additionally, not having a mobile-friendly or responsive web design can impact loading time. If a user is trying to load a website on their mobile device but the site isn't designed for mobile, it's going to load much slower. And if everything seems to be in order but the page speed is still slow, it may come down to the host. Companies should always choose a website host that will give them optimal speed and allow their site to grow without problems.
So what can companies do to increase their page speed? Companies should start by focusing on the issues that were discussed above, as those can be simple fixes. More complex fixes may involve optimizing the code used on the site or using software for compressing the size of the code files. It's also important to ensure the number of pages on a site is kept to a minimum. This is especially important if pages redirect users to other pages on the site -- having to jump from page to page can drastically slow down the loading time. Companies should utilize tools like Google's Webpage test to get further information on their page speed and areas they can improve.
All in all, it's crucial that companies don't forget to focus on their page speeds. In today's fast-paced world, slow web pages are going to get left behind. This results in lower page rankings, decreased sales, and less business in the long run. So if you're looking for an easy way to increase your ranking and bring in more customers, consider taking a closer look at your page speed. If your website pages load slowly, it's important to take action now. Try out some of the tips that were discussed in this article to provide your customers a better user experience and to improve your site's search engine ranking.
By Molly Harding