Page Speed – How Do Slow Websites Impact a Business

In this fast-paced world, our attention spans tend to be much shorter than they should be, so it doesn’t take much for things to lose their appeal. Sites that take too long to load risk losing not only current customers but risk a drop in conversion rates. Current Google recommendations set the ideal page load time at two seconds. Websites with load times longer than that can anticipate a drop in search engine results. There is some disagreement about the exact percentage, but most studies find that 53 percent of mobile users abandon a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Here are some potential outcomes and solutions if your website is too slow to load.

• If a page takes too long to load, today’s consumers are more likely to simply move on to another faster and more convenient option.
• When a website takes too long to load, potential customers may give up waiting, which is bad for business.
• A customer’s first impression of your company will be based on the quality of your website and how quickly it loads. Page speed thus also immediately impacts how they professionally see your brand.

Fortunately, improving your site’s loading time doesn’t require much. You should first take stock of your website’s current status and performance. Google Page Speed Insights can help you analyze your site’s performance and identify areas for improvement. Other steps that help improve site speed are:

• Adjust to mobile requirements

Among the many things, you can do to improve your website’s performance, making it mobile-friendly ranks near the top. Rather than using a desktop computer to browse the web, the vast majority of consumers now favor mobile devices.

• Increase your caching speed

When you cache your data, you save it locally on the user’s device so it can be accessed quickly. As a result, returning website users will see a significant improvement in page load times.

Depending on the program, a static copy of the website can be saved; when a user visits the site, the browser loads this version instead of the dynamic one.

• Compressing images and text

Minimizing or converting the scale and size of your images and getting rid of any unnecessary videos can have a significant impact on page speed. Lazy loading is helpful too, as it allows images to load incrementally as the page is scrolled.

• Remove unused add-ons

It’s possible that the number of installations you have in the backend of a content management system like WordPress is causing your website to slow down. You may be exceeding the site’s memory limit if you’ve had the same website for a while and have frequently been installing plugins to integrate new features. It’s possible that this can be fixed by reverting back and removing any unnecessary plugins or by temporarily activating only those that are currently needed.

• Verify that your web host is still operational

Without a reliable server, efforts to reduce file sizes of images and optimizing for mobile devices will be for naught. To ensure that you have a reliable web host with helpful customer service, you should do your research and compare different options.

• Put your content on other sites’ servers

If you need to share lengthy video files, consider using a service like YouTube or Vimeo. You can embed them directly on your site, thus reducing loading times and gaining a new stream of visitors by posting them on other sites.

• Lessen the use of JavaScript and CSS

To reduce the time, it takes for a user’s first page to load, it is recommended to defer code from the header to the footer. To further enhance page load times by reducing “code bloat,” you can also implement a plugin to reduce the amount of JavaScript code.

Conclusion

A suitably optimized website with eye-catching graphics, relevant, meaningful content, a suitable description of services offered, or information related to the same, and with a target audience in mind can have a significant impact on the business as a whole, a functioning, fast-loading page with quality services, ample reviews, and required information significantly help in establishing brand loyalty, thereby profiting the business.