According to Google, your webspage should load in under two seconds to garner the most traction. Any longer and you risk losing visitors, and therefore business. If your website loading time isn’t up to par, it’s time to change that.

Here’s why fast website loading times are important.

A Fast Website Means a Good First Impression

The most important impression you can make is the first one.

Your first impression creates the framework by which a given user will judge your website, and by proxy, your service. You can have the best-designed website ever, but if it isn’t fast then nobody will care.

When a webpage loads fast, it shows the user that your website is easy to use and up-to-date. It tells them you’ve made a tight website, and gives them a peek into how you might run the rest of your business.

It also tells them that the rest of the website is going to be fast. In a world where we put the speed of our services on a pedestal, this is extremely important.

Improve Your Ranking

The faster your website, the higher it ranks with Google.

That means your website is more likely to show up in searches. For SEO and traffic-gaining purposes, this is crucial. The lower your rank on Google and other search engines, the less eyes that are going to see your website.

There isn’t any specific speed you need to meet to rank higher in Google, but following their under two seconds rule is probably the best way to go.

Keep People Engaged

The human attention span has shrunk significantly over time.

If you want to hold onto visitors on your website and convert them into repeat customers, you’re going to need a fast website. There are likely other websites out there that offer the same content or service as yours. If your website chugs or fails to load fast, users will find an alternative that works faster.

You need to hook users as fast as possible, especially considering how many people end up on your site through mobile devices. Mobile devices make up a huge chunk of web browsing today, and oftentimes people browsing on their phones don’t have much time. They may be commuting, on their way to a big meeting, or quickly checking in on something between business.

Make your website as fast as possible to catch and keep as many customers as possible.

Speed Equals Control

The more in control a visitor to your site feels, the more likely they’ll be to revisit your site.

One of the best ways you can increase a users sense of control is by upping your speed. When a webpage struggles to load, it feels like the site is fighting against the user. The more the website fights and disallows use, the more likely you are to lose a conversion.

Improve Conversion

The most important aspect of any website is whether or not it leads to conversions.

The slower your website, the less likely a user is to stick around. That means they’re less likely to view the other pages on your site, including product and service pages. If the user doesn’t spend any time getting to know your site, they’ll never convert from visitor to customer.

Pinterest is a great example of this. In 2015, Pinterest devs managed to increase their website’s speed by a considerable 40%. In turn, their sign-ups and search engine traffic saw a 15% increase!

Learn from Pinterest and strive to speed your website up as much as you can. You might just see a big increase in conversions.

How to Speed up a Website

There are a few easy things you can do to speed up your website.

First off, make sure you’re using as few widgets and plugins as possible. These will eat up your web speed if you have too many running. You can have a few simple widgets, just don’t go overboard.

One of the biggest causes for site slowdown is bloated images. Any images that are multiple megabytes in size take too long to load. It’s always a good idea to compress images before uploading them to your site.

Some other causes of website slowdown are too many ads, a bloated design theme, and lots of sign-up forms. The fewer elements that have to load on your site, the better. Text and small images load no problem, but too much of anything else and you’re likely to see some slowdown.

If you want to take the busywork out of speeding up your website, see what Caffeinated Marketing can do for you.

Check Website Loading Time

The best way to check your website’s loading speed is with Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

This tool lets you analyze any website to see how fast it loads. You can then take that data and use it as a starting point. Edit your website, save it, then test it on the PageSpeed Insight tool again to see if there’s any improvement.

You can also simply visit the website on your web browser to see how fast it loads. This puts you at the mercy of your internet connection, though, so it may not be the most accurate.

Improve Your Website Loading Time Today

Now that you know why you should improve your website loading time, it’s time to take action. With a fast website, you can expect more conversions, more search-engine visibility, and happier customers overall. Don’t delay; reevaluate your website today.

Contact Caffeinated Marketing with any questions about our services, or how we can speed up your website.