Site Speed. Site Speed. Site Speed. It’s all seems to be about site speed lately. How can we improve it? Just how fast can we make our site load? How fast is fast enough? There are so many questions and we have answers. Most importantly we want to tell you why site speed is so important (ie: why you should give a damn). When it comes down to it, there are 2 simple reasons why site speed matters:
- Users
Users – They are Impatient
I admit it: I’m a frequent internet user and I am very impatient. If a website takes more than a second or 2 to load, I start second-guessing if I clicked the right link and if I should actually try another search result. I bring my finger to the back button and… “click”. Just like that, you lost a potential customer just because your website was too slow. Maybe your website was going to load in another millisecond, but I’ll never know.
After just 2-3 seconds of waiting for a website to load, 40% of customers will do just the same.
Google Cares Too
Whether you are running ads or trying to rank organically, Google seems to care more and more about how fast your site’s pages load. Why the heck does Google care? Because users care! Google’s goal is to give users the results they want (ie: accurate information fast). Since users are more likely to stay on a page that loads fast, Google will rank these pages higher than its slower equivalent.
Common Reasons Websites Load Slow
- Bloated code
- Massive, non-optimized images
- Locally hosted, non-optimized videos
- Heavy animations and transitions
- Low hosting server (Im looking at you, GoDaddy)
- Heavy outdated CMS
- Failure to utilize optimization tools (such as plugins)
Slow Website? We Can Help!
If your website is really slow, there is hope! Contact our team at Buzzbait and we will take a look into opportunities for improving your website load speed. Sometimes we can easily improve your current website, but sometimes a new website is recommended. If we recommend a new website, we will explain to you why.