blogUsability experts have been preaching for years that fast loading websites produce improved business results. Until recently little scientific evidence existed to back those claims.
Google & Bing Performance Tests
According to the test results, speed directly effects the bottom line. The two search engine companies concluded that even a 1/2 second delay will reduce the number of searches performed by a visitor each day. Even more surprising, the average number of searches performed by the visitor stayed suppressed even after the delay was removed.
Speed Performance Tests On Other Websites
A separate study by Strangeloop Networks proves that site load time is also important for every website, not just search engines. Websites optimized for speed showed improvements in qualitative engagement metrics such as lower bounce rates, increased page views, and longer time on site. For sites focused on advertising revenue this equates to more impressions, and the ability to earn more per visitor.
Meanwhile transaction based websites experienced improved KPI’s when optimized for speed. In this specific test, the optimized sites experienced a 16.07% increase in conversion rates, and a 5.50% increase in average order value.
Attention is a scare commodity on the web. Do everything you can to keep and convert hard won clicks. This includes optimizing web page load times. Your bottom line depends on it.
Tags: conversion optimization, usability
This is important for businesses to understand. At the end of the day its about conversions and ROI not clicks and rankings. If people find you in the top 5 on google for a competitive kw but none convert, what good is that? Focus on conversion, fast load time, and directing the viewer to whatever action you want them to take! Thanks for the numbers on this…
Viaddress
Fast load times are very essential in the current market scenario – so relying solely on packed websites won’t do. In the age of simplicity, time is of the essence, so if a business is trying to target a group of customers – it should do everything in its power to take its act up a notch.
Downloading time is one of the most important things in a website.
SEO Ninjas
Downloading time is the most important thing in websites.
Thanks for sharing that!
I have to agree. Most people will exit out of a site if it doesn’t load fast enough, the same thing has been going on since the early days of dial-up modems and text based sites.
When designing a website, its speed and how fast web pages will load become important factors to consider. Good website design will always take the speed of a website into consideration.
What tools do you use to optimize load times? We use YSlow and Google Page Speed. Caching and a CDN (if it is within your budget) can help as well.
Loading faster is definitely a major issue. The Crosspointe Church site we’ve been working on (see link) is pretty good, but of course we are using faster equipment etc., unlike the average user, at home with equipment that may be 5 years old.
Agreed, after i optmized my ecommerce the conversion rate increased by 10%
And wasnt that hard, just changed some basic things that ySlow had recommended me
well faster website is good for SEO too according to google, they like sites that load fast.
another key points from this article to take note of.. thanks
How can my website load faster?
Well, if you have a good website, naturally you will create traffic. And traffic is good as long as it is traffic. Besides, just make sure your website has a good contents.
totally agreed with the above statement thats why i changed my site from flash to static and it bring a sudden change on my traffic and conversion rate
Do think that the speed of a role-play can. But even if the site is getting bigger now, I do not think it’s so dramatic. For each project should grow yes. Very good blog here.
Agree that faster loading websites are really good for business. Hope to see some techniques on how to improve our sites speed on your next post. Thanks