Did you know ¼ of visitors will abandon a page if it hasn’t loaded within 4 seconds? Page speed is not just about making the user experience as easy as possible, Google is also using it to rank your site.

Google Cares About Page Speed

In 2010 Google announced that they were going to include page speed as a ranking signal. This was to encourage web developers to give users the best experience possible. It does make perfect sense though; the quicker the page loads, the greater chance the user will stay on your website. Although Google is now checking for this speed, it won’t hurt your rankings too drastically if you’re not Lightning Mcqueen. In 2010, Google explained that only 1% of search engine results were penalised by page speed. This may not seem like a large percentage, but it could be the difference between first and second place – which is crucial for winning over traffic!

Visitors Care About Page Speed

Of course you always need to keep Google in mind, but it’s usually best to put yourselves in your visitor’s shoes. It’s no huge secret that better conversions are usually the result of a positive user experience.

According to GlobalDot, after Walmart discovered they weren’t the fastest retailer on the internet, they decided to redesign, focusing on site speed. They results they gathered were fascinating:

  • For every 1 second of improvement they experience up to a 2% increase in conversions.
  • For every 100 milliseconds of improvement, they grew incremental revenue by up to 1%.

Amazon calculated that a page load slowing by just one second could cost $1.6 billion, yes billion, in sales a year!

How Can You Fix It?

Firstly, you don’t even know if it’s broken yet! Google have created a great page speed tool called PageSpeed Insights, which gives a good indicator. Still not sure what the issue is? Why not give us a shout and we can take a look for you! Our web developers have been optimising site speeds for years!

We have put together a list of the top 3 most common reasons why websites experience long page speeds:

1. Poor server side code

This could be a number of things ranging from the website code not being optimised for speed, to newer coding standards not being followed – this is something that your developers should be doing already.

2. Poor server configuration

Using old or out of date server software will leave your site panting at the start line. You also have to make sure the server only has installed on it what it needs. Don’t forget to make sure the server has been modified for it’s specific job, otherwise it’s just working against you.

3. Front end code optimising

Where possible all the images you use on your website should be the exact size they need to be. Do not serve large images when small ones will do, you’ll be causing unnecessary delays. You should always use HTML5 where possible. Last but not least ALWAYS minify (compress) your stylesheets and javascript. It’s an absolute dreamboat when it comes to site speed.

Think you’re going to need our help?

Feel free to contact us if you need some help on making sure you’re not losing conversions because of a slow website. We can provide website hosting solutions to make sure you’re website is running as smoothly as possible

Call us now on 01472 878 496 or email us on office@laserred.co