The Influence of the Speed of the Website on Sales and Conversions
Imagine this situation: a potential client discovers your enterprise on the internet, clicks on your page, but after waiting for a while – he leaves and goes to your competitor’s page. Believe it or not, it happens to hundreds of small enterprises daily. The thing is, that a fast website increases sales in ways that few people realize. Speed is not just a feature – it’s a revenue generator.
Slow Pages Waste Your Money
Google researchers have found that each additional second of page loading time causes an increase in the probability of bouncing from 1 second to 3 seconds by 32%, and from 3 seconds to 5 seconds by 90%.
Thus, for a small enterprise, the problem of low site speed is not just about frustrating visitors – it’s an effective way of sending them to the pages of your competitors. Each second of waiting time makes your visitors lose confidence and patience.
As Amazon estimated, one-second slower load time will cause them to lose $1.6 billion per year. Of course, you won’t earn such amount, but if your site gets 500 visitors monthly and 20% of them abandon the site due to a long page loading, you lose 100 clients each month.
Speed Shows Trust Before a Word Said
It’s worth noting the psychological component of the site speed issue. An instant-loaded site sends your visitors a subconscious signal of professionalism and reliability of your business, showing that your business cares about them.
At the same time, slow and cumbersome sites create subconscious barriers: “Is this enterprise still working? Is my information safe on this page?”. Of course, people will not think of this consciously – they will just click on something else.
So, if you own a local service-oriented business – a dentist’s clinic, boutique law firm, a house renovation company – website speed is part of your brand. A quick and smooth interaction gives a signal that your enterprise works effectively. And it can be enough for a potential client to choose you among other similar companies.
Google Awards Fast Sites – and So Do Clients
Since 2021, Google uses core web vitals as a ranking criterion. Simply saying, the page loading speed influences where your site will appear in search results. Thus, not only does a faster site convert visitors better, but it also appears more often in search results.
If you are the owner of a small business website, which competes with others for local clients, it means a lot for you. If you offer the same service as your competitor, but your website is optimized much better, then your competitor will get more visits due to better rankings in search results.
So, practical measures which can help you to optimize your site and increase its conversion are compression of pictures, browser cache, high-quality hosting provider, and minimal use of plugins and scripts.
Speed Is a Sales Strategy
In summary, a fast website is a great sales tool, which retains visitors on your site, creates a quick reputation of your enterprise, positively impacts your Google rankings, and helps to earn you some extra money.
So, if you have not checked your website’s speed lately, start with it. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights are free of charge and give you an objective view of your site’s performance. And if your site’s speed constantly leaves you unsatisfied, it’s time to discuss it with a web developer.
