Originally posted on https://digitalassets.solutions/speed-guide-why-page-speed-is-important-for-your-business/

Ever tried shopping online only to abandon the cart because the page won’t load?

You’re not alone — in fact, 76% of online shoppers abandon their cart. Unexpected taxes, high shipping rates, and hidden fees all factor into this but so does page speed. Who wouldn’t lose interest if the online shop you’re at takes too long?

But how crucial is a site’s speed performance and how does it affect SEO? In this speed guide, we’ll tackle into this deeper and also discuss how you can improve:

Better User Experience

Did you know most mobile users leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load? If your pages are slow, people will leave before they get to see what you offer.

That increases your bounce rate and that’s never good.

A high bounce rate indicates poor UX (user experience). Google takes this as a hint that your site can’t satisfy people’s needs and will then rank your pages lower.

User experience involves a lot of factors, from navigation and page design to image optimization and font size.

Google Favors Faster Pages

Google speed guide notes that the search engine’s algorithm takes all of these into consideration when computing page ranks.

Yes, the algorithm takes bounce rates into the equation but it doesn’t end there. Crawlers also experience difficulty navigating a page if it takes too long to load. If Google’s own crawlers can’t properly explore your page, your site is in deep trouble.

Keep in mind that Google also favors mobile-ready sites over desktop sites too. Your pages need to load up quickly not only a big screen but on a mobile device too. Otherwise, you’ll see a decrease in SERP rankings.

Higher Conversions

Now we know how loading slow affect SEO and UX but what are the benefits of a faster page, other than the obvious? First off, you benefit from higher conversion rates.

Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, could potentially lose $1.6 billion in revenue with every 1 second of lag. If your business maintains faster loading times for your site, you could boost conversion rates or at least maintain what you have now.

How to Increase Speed?

Increasing your page speed performance is all about optimization. Experts can do this for you but there are a few things you can do on your own.

Start by compressing images and videos. These take up a lot of memory and slow down the loading speed. You can use tools like Smush to reduce image size and maintain their high-quality appearance.

You should also use tools like CSSNano to optimize each page’s code. Minify everything from the HTML code to the CSS code and get rid of comments or poor formatting.

Other steps include optimizing browser caching, reduce HTTPS requests, cut down server response time, and pick a good hosting service. All of these can make pages, even those with a lot of visual content, load up quickly.

Follow Our Speed Guide Today!

Making your pages faster is only the beginning. Our speed guide can help you get started but you need to also focus on other aspects of better SEO, such as proper keyword selection, email listings, and building an XML sitemap.

That’s where we come in. Don’t hesitate to give us a call and let us help you optimize your site, increase traffic, and boost conversions.