Usually, when a website takes too long to load, we lose our patience and look for alternatives. Knowing this aspect of our nature, we should expect the same behavior from our audience if our website is slow. Thus, a slow website can be a problem for businesses, and the solution lies in fixing the issues that your website has. Website speed optimization benefits you in many ways. Let’s see how.
What is Website Speed Optimization?
Website speed optimization includes incorporating codes or plugins into a website that improve its loading speed. Your website can be slow due to heavy image files on the page, too many redirects, an overloaded database, or unnecessary codes. By fixing such issues, your website can load faster.
The ideal time for a website to load is within 2-3 seconds. However, some websites take longer to load, thus increasing their chances of bounce rate. If you want your website to give you maximum business, you need to optimize your website speed.
How Speed Optimization Benefits a Website
Search engines rank websites as per the preferences of their users. So, if a user needs content relevant to their search, the search engine will rank a website that has content revolving around the search term, also known as keyword. Likewise, if a user has the patience to wait for only 2-3 seconds for a website to load, it will rank a website that loads within that time frame.
Thus, the following are the benefits of website speed optimization:
Increases Search Engine Rank
Your page speed impacts your ranking directly as well as indirectly. While it is one of the ranking factors for search engines, it also affects other ranking factors of search engines, such as user experience, traffic, and bounce rate. A slow website can reduce traffic and increase bounce rate, thus reducing your rank. Your page speed score additionally impacts your SEO score directly.
Improves User Experience
User experience is nothing but how one feels about the website while using it. The experience here includes the speed, interface, navigation, and content of the website. User experience improves with a faster website. A slow-loading website may give the user the impression that he is in the wrong place.
Reduces Bounce Rate
When a user sees that a website is taking way too long to load, he will click on the “back button,” going back to the search engine results page or wherever he opened your website link. When a user exits a website without even scrolling it, the data gets recorded as your “bounce rate.” This bounce rate increases when more and more users leave your website without navigating – a common behavior when websites take time to load. Hence, an improvement in speed reduces the bounce rate of the website.
Increases Traffic
When rankings and user experience improve, traffic starts improving on its own. You’ll get more users coming to your website through an improvement in rankings and an increase in referrals. With a reduction in the bounce rate of the website, you automatically get higher traffic on your website as the users will now stay and navigate your website rather than go back to the search engine results page.
Boosts Conversions
If the content and ease of navigation are good on your website, then the increase in traffic and engagement will eventually lead to conversions. Search engines tend to rank websites when content is relevant. So, if you have already ranked on the search engines, it means the user landed on your page because he’s looking for what you’re providing. If you have competitive rates or a user-friendly form, your chances of conversions will improve with an improvement in website speed.
To Sum it Up
The above benefits of website optimization are all interconnected. A higher rank in search engines is influenced by your SEO score, which includes your page speed score along with several other factors. Your website can maintain this rank only after it gets an appropriate amount of traffic and usage. Without a fast-loading speed, a user does not get a good experience of your site. And without a good experience, you cannot expect engagement and conversions.
Your goal, in the end, is to get conversions. And without improving website speed, you’re least likely to achieve this goal through your website. Hence, speed optimization benefits a website greatly.
Do you need to improve your website speed? If yes, then it’s time to contact me now.