The Importance of Website Page Speed and Its Effect

Website page speed is a factor most people don't think about when they run their website. 

It's funny because most of us notice it immediately when we visit a slow-loading website. 

Let's say you see a cool product for sale, and you open the website. What you get is the barely loaded framework of a page for just a second or two too long. 

For most people, this becomes annoying rather quickly. Slow speeds are a thing of the past, and visitors expect professionals to do better.

As far as website specifics go, this one can make a huge difference. It can have a significant impact on how people interact with your site. 

Still, few people know what website page speed is or how it can affect their business. 

In this article, we will discuss page speed and how it can influence how people view your website.

🚀 Understanding Website Page Speed

In its most basic form, website page speed is the time it takes to load a web page. 

A fully loaded page should have all elements active and ready to go almost immediately. This means:

• No awkward white pages
• No half-loaded layout
• No fields you can't instantly interact with

Site speed ultimately determines how quickly a visitor can use your website. This can have a pretty important impact on how people view your brand as well.

Most website owners believe website page speed isn't a huge deal. 

So what if it takes an extra second? Could it cause that big of an issue? 

The reality is that website speed can ruin the way your website operates in the eyes of users. 

Not only that, but site speed is a confirmed ranking signal (confirmed below).

The Search team announced speed would be a ranking signal for desktop searches in 2010 and as of this month (July 2018), page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches too. Source: Google

If your website seems slow, you might want to consider ways to boost its speed.

🐌 What Does Page Speed Affect?

The effects of page speed on your website can range widely. 

A simple inconvenience can quickly turn into an all-out problem. This type of issue can even lead to losing money. 

That's why you must address slow-loading pages. 

Your customers will recognise the difference, even if you don't. If your website speed is lacking, people will get upset and leave your site.

A slow-loading website can affect:

1. User experience
2. Bounce rate
3. Conversion rate
4. SEO ranking

User Experience

Slow-loading web pages are terrible for user experience. 

A good website will load quickly. Transitioning from one page to the next should feel fluid and immediate. 

Users may not notice if your website is incredibly responsive. But they will undoubtedly notice if it isn't.

Slower page speeds might be acceptable if most of the page loads immediately. But this might not be the case either. 

What if a person wants to use that exact section that hasn't loaded yet? That is where the problems start. 

What about pages where you have to enter personal information? We all know the anxiety that comes with using these types of sites, especially if they take too long to load. 

It's a good reason to avoid the website altogether.

Don't risk losing customers simply because you didn't address this problem.

Bounce Rate

You should also take a look at your bounce rate. It will tell you how many visitors leave your website after viewing only one page.

You would be amazed by just how much this number matters. 

A slow-loading page can cost you a high percentage of otherwise interested visitors. 

The bounce rate actively shows you how many people are outright bailing on your web page. 

It can also tell you that each second of load time causes more people to leave.

Take a look at some statistics from Google.

The neural net, which had a 90% prediction accuracy, found that as page load time goes from one second to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases 123%. Similarly, as the number of elements—text, titles, images—on a page goes from 400 to 6,000, the probability of conversion drops 95%. Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.

People expect web pages to load immediately. When they don't, it can make the website seem less credible. 

It can result in people leaving the website entirely to look for a better alternative.

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is a metric that shows how effective website interactions are. 

It's the data related to how many interested parties commit to an action. 

Depending on your website's focus, this might look a little different for you. 

For some websites, it means getting a direct sale. For others, it could be signing up for a newsletter. It's all about getting the visitor to complete a task.

When your site loads slowly, you're immediately making them choose someone else instead. 

The user will assume that this poor experience will be consistent every step of the way. 

No one wants to spend ten minutes waiting for various pages to load for online shopping. Especially when they can use One-Click on Amazon.

This is another area where credibility plays a significant role. 

People are wary of shopping online. This is because of the threat of security breaches and online identity theft.

Plenty of people shop online. But most of them will keep an eye out for anything that might be suspicious or untrustworthy. 

Slow load speeds are also considered a sign of outdated technology. 

This might cause your audience to worry about the integrity of your website. They may leave the page and choose someone else instead.

SEO Ranking

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the go-to way to get your website on the map.

It's all about using the right strategies to cater your site to Google and other search engines. 

These search engines analyse the website and its content. They then decide where it falls in the pages of searchable material. 

Want people to find your website? It's key to make sure that Google likes your page.

Google and other search engines condemn slow website speeds. These systems check certain critical technical features, and this is one of them. 

When your loading time is much slower than the next website or store in your niche, Google will rank you lower.

A lower SEO rank means that you will be harder to find. 

You want people to be able to locate your business when it comes to searching for any text that might relate to you. 

A low SEO rank means that you will be further down the list in search engine results.

You might not think that this is a big deal. However, it can make your website nonexistent in the eyes of potential customers. 

Most people don't spend time going past the first couple of pages of search results. Many never even make it past the first page. 

It shows how imperative it is for your website to rank high.

🧪 How to Test Your Website Speed in Two Minutes

There are a wide variety of tools available online to determine your website speed. 

We recommend GTmetrix.

GTmetrix is a tool that lets you test the performance of your web pages.

Enter your web page URL. Remember to select the location closest to your target demographic. 

You will need to create a free account with GTmetrix to change the testing server location. Once you have entered your URL, click "analyse".

At the top of the page, you'll see a screenshot. This is the overview of the Analysis Options used to generate the report.

This is how the page scored in PageSpeed and YSlow. The scores are based on how well the page adheres to Google and Yahoo's best practices. 

Hover over the arrows. It will tell you how this page scored compared to the average of all pages tested by GTmetrix in the past 30 days.

The page's actual load time in a real browser, as well as its page size and number of requests.

PageSpeed and YSlow recommendations are the best practices for your website for optimal front-end performance. Recommendations are ordered by the impact on your scores. Click on each recommendation to expand and show specific details.

The Waterfall Chart is a request-by-request visualisation of the page's loading behaviour. 

They may look intimidating. But Waterfall Charts are a great tool for troubleshooting performance issues.

👍 How Can I Boost My Website Speed?

Slow or decreasing website speed is something you should absolutely look into. 

Since it can have such a large impact on your site, you want to resolve the issue as fast as possible. 

Fortunately, there are a few simple steps that you or an admin can take to help improve your rate. These include:

1. Checking your website for malware
2. Using quality WordPress plugins
3. Working with your host
4. Working with experts

Check Your Website For Malware

A lot of the time, when a website starts to lose speed out of nowhere, it's because there is clutter.

Plenty of people don't realise that a website can be infected, but it actually can. Over time, this will decrease the overall performance of your site.

Running a quick scan and removing any issues can help your website run better.

Use Quality WordPress Plugins

If you're using WordPress, you might have realised that there is a plugin for just about anything.

There are plugins designed specifically to help you to boost website speed. These simple tools can give you a little speed boost with an easy-to-manage add-on.

Here are three plugins we use and recommend:

1. WP Rocket
2. Imagify
3. Perfmatters

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is one of those plugins we've tried and now include on every single one of our websites. 

It's a premium WordPress plugin that makes websites load much faster with just a few changes. 

It's primarily a caching plugin. 

There are free alternatives, but based on our tests, WP Rocket is faster. The best part about this plugin is its ease of use. 

Just installing the plugin on your website automatically does half the work for you. 

When you're ready to make further improvements, there are more advanced options. These include:

• Media lazy-loading
• Webp image format serving
• Minification
• CDN integration

If we had to pick just one plugin to speed up a Wordpress website, WP Rocket would be our choice.

‍

Imagify

Poor image optimisation is one of the most common errors we see on poorly made websites.

Imagify makes it simple not to make this mistake by automatically optimising the images you upload. 

The best part is there's a bulk optimisation option. This means you won't have to go through image by image.

Perfmatters

Perfmatters is the final cherry on our cake. It covers all those extra options that other plugins don't cover. 

With it, you can limit stored post revisions, disable/tweak the Heartbeat API, host Google Analytics locally, and much more. 

Take a look at the list of the features.

Work With Your Host

In some cases, the speed issue with your site might be related to your host. 

It might be linked to technical troubles. You may also need to upgrade your services to support more traffic. Whatever the case, they can help you find great solutions.

It's important that you pick a great host from the start.

We've tried quite a few different companies here at RankRise, and we highly recommend Kinsta.

Work With An Expert

If you're not a technology lover, your website might benefit from a professional. 

Many helpful web developers are available to help you keep your site running smoothly every day. 

It's a small investment for a huge benefit in the long run. 

Calling in an expert can actually help you to save a ton of money. RankRise provides this service with a one-day turnaround. 

📍 Why Is Website Page Speed Important?

A faster website creates a better user experience for your customers. It's also beneficial for SEO. 

Studies show that users tend to click off more often and spend less time on websites when they load slowly.

Proper load speeds on your site are not merely a matter of maintenance. They are one of the critical factors by which a website is judged. 

If you notice that your website has slower-than-average page speeds, it is time to get to work.

Whether you follow some tips to boost your speed yourself or you pay someone else to handle it for you, it can make a world of difference. 

Make sure that people are free to seamlessly glide through your website. Don't leave them stuck with frustrating loading problems.

Your website deserves better, and so does your audience!

If you're looking for more website and SEO tips, RankRise is here to help. Don't hesitate to reach out to us.