Video Transcription
Does Page Speed Matter? Absolutely! Here Are 4 Reasons Why…
Does page speed matter? The short answer is, yes it does.
The long answer? There are four big reasons why page speed matters, which I will reveal in a moment. And guess what? I've got some mind-blowing case studies to back it all up.
So, buckle up! Let’s get you up to speed with the importance of page speed and its crucial role in boosting your business growth!
Why Page Speed Matters?
In the world we live in today, page speed is absolutely crucial. People have come to expect instant access to information, products, or services they're after. If you have what they're looking for, they want it delivered at lightning speed. Any sort of delay, even a tiny fraction of a second, will send them searching elsewhere. And that leads us to the first reason why page speed truly matters.
Retaining Users
Performance is all about retaining users, clients, customers, or whatever else you call them. For obvious reasons, they’re more likely to engage with high-performing websites than low-performing ones that don’t respect their time.
That’s why the success of any online enterprise is heavily reliant on performance. If your site loads slower than competitors, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
That’s right.
Being faster than your competitors in terms of page loading speed is all about gaining a competitive advantage. And winning the game.
With a blazing site website or app, you’ll provide a superior user experience, which will help you retain website visitors and users.
And speaking of user experience, this is also another reason why page speed matters.
User Experience (UX)
Let’s be honest… if YouTube is still as slow as it was decades ago, you wouldn’t bother spending hours of your working hours binge-watching your favorite YouTubers, would you?
A slow loading speed frustrates visitors.
And it leads to high bounce rates.
In fact, studies have shown that users are more likely to leave a website if it takes too long to load. By too long, it means… just a few milliseconds longer than they expect it to load.
On the other hand, a fast-loading website is a joy to use. It provides a great user experience and increases engagement, as well as the likelihood of visitors staying on the site.
Google did research to understand how the page load time will impact the bounce rate.
As you can see in the above image, for every second longer it takes to load your website, you’re losing a lot of visitors.
Let that sink in your mind for a second…
Just three to five seconds longer, and you’re losing half as many visitors who could otherwise become your paid customers.
And that’s not all!
Here’s more:
More Than Half Of Web Visitors Use Mobile Devices
A whopping 53.62% of all website traffic worldwide was generated from mobile devices in 2020—and these numbers are growing by 2-3% every single year, according to a report from Web Journal.
If you check your website statistics, you will probably see a trend of increasing use of mobile devices for internet browsing.
Do you see where we are going?
Yes, page speed becomes even more crucial with each passing year since mobile connections are typically slower and less reliable than desktop connections. Which is why optimizing page speed is unquestionably important.
Slow loading page speed on mobile devices can lead to higher bounce rates, which leads to poor experience, and finally, resulting in terrible conversions and so many lost opportunities.
What’s more…
Page Speed Also Affects Search Engine Rankings
On April 9, 2010, Google announced paid speed as a ranking factor. At that time, it was applied for desktop search engine rankings only.
But later on July 9, 2018, Google made another announcement. And this time they stated that page speed is a ranking factor for mobile search engine rankings.
Over time, they made a significant change to the ranking factors.
Finally, on May 28, 2020, Google introduced the Core Web Vitals, which now has become a critical ranking factor for search results along with page speed.
Many people were busy chasing a score of 100 on the test, instead of working on page speed and user experience. This is a wrong move, which I’m going to address in the upcoming articles.
These people knew nothing about page speed or core web vitals.
And I don’t blame them.
They were following YouTubers who were showing how to achieve a perfect 100 using the page speed insights testing tool, without even knowing what they were doing.
Alright, let’s get back to the topic.
See, I don't care what Google says. I’ve been in the web design and development world since 1998.
All these years I gave importance to the following points:
- Improve the page speed for website visitors
- Improve the user experience
- Reduce bounce rate
- Rank high on search results
- Generate more leads and conversions
- Generate more revenue
If you're like me and care more about the above points than appeasing Google, then I'd love to invite you to check out my Speed Optimization Course. It's a step-by-step guide that will show you how to achieve all of those important points—and I'm confident that you'll find it helpful.
Now, let’s talk about another reason why page speed matters, which is…
Accessibility
Page speed hugely affects website accessibility for people with slow internet speed—or those with visual disabilities that require assistive technology, which requires a fast loading speed.
If you have a website, you can ensure all users—regardless of their internet speed or if they need assistive technology—can access and navigate your site with ease.
Let me show you a few fascinating case studies to prove that.
Case Studies On The Importance Of Page Speed
Pinterest reduced perceived wait times by 40%, and this leads to increased search engine traffic and sign-ups by 15%.
COOK reduced average page load time by 850 milliseconds which increased conversions by 7%, decreased bounce rates by 7%, and increased page per session by 10%.
And in 2019, eBay got their team on board to ensure the website and apps will load as fast as possible to the visitors. According to eBay, for every 100 milliseconds improvement in the search page loading time, eBay saw a 0.5% increase in the number of items added to carts.
So, if the search page loading time is improved by just one second, they will see a 5% percent increase in the number of items added to carts—which is truly fascinating.
Hang on… There’s more and it gets even more interesting:
Mobify, an eCommerce solution provider, said that for every 100-millisecond decrease in home page load speed, they see a 1.11% percent increase in session-based conversion rates. What’s more, a hundred milliseconds decrease in checkout page load speed amounted to a 1.55 percent increase in session-based conversions
AutoAnything reduced page load time by half, which boosted 12-13% in sales.
Furniture Village, a retailer, reduced page load time by 20% and increased conversion rate by 10% by auditing and addressing problems.
Conclusion: Yes, Page Speed Does Matter!
There is more than enough evidence to prove that slow page speed harms businesses, as evidenced by the BBC which lost an additional 10% of users for every additional second their site took to load.
In the upcoming articles, I will show you how page speed and core web vitals can…
- Impact user experience
- Increase engagement
- Reduce the bounce rate
- Rank your site higher on search engines
- Boost conversion rates
- Increase your revenue
- And improve your overall success
If you find this article helpful, feel free to share it with your friends on social media—or share it with your colleagues or team members. Spread the word and let others know that they shouldn’t ignore the importance of page speed.
Also, consider checking out my Speed Optimization Course if you’re ready to learn the ins and outs of page speed optimization, using a fool-proof framework that works amazing today.
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Got some questions? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!