The Internet and Mobile devices have increased the speed at which consumers can get access to information; this increased speed has caused people to expect an almost instantaneous delivery of their digital information.
If people don’t get their information in a reasonable amount of time, they quickly move on to something else that is more accessible.
This situation is extremely important to website owners; if people don’t instantly get the information they need from your site, they will quickly look for another one. This is the precise reason why companies like Google have given website owners the ability to monitor the speed of their websites.
Google Analytics has recently added Speed Suggestions into their reporting; this integration allows users to easily increase the speed at which their site loads. Analytics users now have the opportunity to get Speed Suggestion reports right in the content area on their sidebar.
Why Is Site Speed Important?
As mentioned earlier, page speed helps you provide a great user experience. This in and of itself helps you retain and entice customers. There are also a few other reasons why website owners need to be concerned about their site speed:
Bounce Rates
If people click on your website and then quickly click on the back button, you lose them to your competitors. All of the hard work and time you have put into your site doesn’t mean anything unless your customers stay on your website and take a look around; slow sites increase the chance that a customer will leave your site and never bother to come back to it again.
When a customer does this, all the money you have spent on advertising, content and Adwords goes down the drain. Many business owners make the mistake of spending lots of money on SEO and promotion without considering the reliability and speed of their website.
If your site has slow load times, your bounce rate increases; when your bounce rate increases, you lose traffic and customers. It’s always smart to make sure that your site is not losing visitors due to slow load times.
Many emerging markets are dominated by mobile content; unfortunately, mobile content is often supported by slow cellular connections. This makes customers on cell phones even more likely to abandon your website if it loads slowly. If your site won’t load on a cell phone, then you are losing a large amount of potential customers.
SEO Rankings
Google has publicly stated that websites that cater to visitors are likely to rank higher in the search engines. Many SEO experts believe that quick loading websites receive an extra boost in the rankings; it all boils down to how the user-friendly your website is.
Search engines also use website bounce rates in the ranking process; if they see people automatically clicking off of your website and going to another, they will figure that your site does not offer visitors pertinent information. If your website loads slowly, it looks like people are not interested in the information you are offering.
Lower PPC Costs
Businesses often use PPC advertising to get targeted traffic to their website; if your site loads quickly, you can get more people to your site at a lower cost. This happens because Google uses certain metrics to rate your site; these metrics are combined into a value that is used to determine where your ads will be shown.
It is believed that Google penalizes sites that have a slow load time; these sites end up paying more money to be displayed prominently. If you want to increase your site’s score, you need to make sure that it loads quickly. When you do this, you end up paying less money to be shown more prominently in the search engines.
It makes a lot of sense to decrease your site’s load time if you use PPC; a quicker site means that you get higher rankings at low prices; in the long-run, this can give you a definitive advantage over your competitors.
Improve Your Site Speed
So how can you check your site speed? Pingdom and Google have free tools that will not only show how fast your site speed is, but also provide suggestions for improving your site speed. We often use both of these tools at Pan Galactic Digital to help our clients improve their SEO, and ultimately their revenue.
Business owners often invest lots of money into the content, design and features of their websites; they often overlook the speed at which their site loads. There is no point in having a nice site with great content if customers and search engines ignore it. Speed is critical for rankings and customer satisfaction; fortunately, Speed Selections helps you figure out exactly what needs to be changed on your site to make it quicker. Take a couple of minutes to analyze the data; you may be surprised at how a couple of quick changes can help your website succeed.
How Much Difference Does Seo Make For Your Website?