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Why Your Website Needs To Be Fast (And How To Make Sure It Is)

By Darren Pierce on Oct 2, 2014 6:00:00 AM

Let’s cut to the chase—your website needs to be fast. Really fast. Like wow-I-literally-just-clicked-that-link fast.

Your competitors are optimizing their page rendering speeds, and you should be doing the same.

Why?

Let’s get into a few reasons.

Speed Affects All The Metrics We Care About

Nearly all the metrics you look at to determine ROI are tied to your site speed: bounce rate, conversion rate, average visit duration, the list goes on.

Speed affects them all.

Nearly half of the web’s users expect a site to load in under two seconds, and they’ll tend to abandon a site if it doesn’t load in under three seconds.

Additionally, 79% of users who have trouble with website performance say they won’t return.

How many of those metrics are affected by just these 3 statistics mentioned?

Faster Site = More Money

Just one second lost can mean big bucks. 

A one-second delay in page load time causes a 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

How much does that drop in conversions cost your business specifically? Do the math quickly.

Yeah, it’s a good chunk of change—all because of a one-second difference.

Having a faster site really does equate to making more money.

How You Can Make Your Site Faster

1) Figure out what’s slowing it down in the first place. Use a tool like Pingdom Website Speed Test and to get an analysis of how your site is performing compared to competitors.

2) Pick off the low-hanging fruit. Once you’ve got your list of potential improvements, start with those quick and easy tasks. Delegate them to the most appropriate people.

3) Create a timeline for longer projects. Most projects don’t have a quick fix. Not surprising. Take the time to put a long-term plan in place so you can continue to make improvements.

Speed kills . . . SALES, that is! Do you know how well your site is performing? Time to find out.

What other tips on page rendering speed do you have?

Written by Darren Pierce

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