9 Simple Steps to Website Speed Optimization & Top Reasons Why It’s Important
Why web speed optimization is important
Going back to the statistics, the Kissmetrics survey shows that 79% of users are less likely to revisit a website with performance issues. Furthermore, 52% of surveyed shoppers say that performance is an important ingredient for their loyalty. This means that the fastest websites generate quality leads.
Undoubtedly, surveys are an excellent way to find out the attitude of customers to any need. However, the example of website loading speed optimization from a well-known company would be more valuable, right?
Walmart is great for this. After measuring website load time and doing initial analysis, the company found that users who converted had twice as fast load speeds compared to those who didn’t convert.
A live example of the impact of website page speed optimization
By the end of the optimization, they managed to noticeably increase their conversion rates along with revenue. Additionally, the company shared the following statistics:
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Every second of load acceleration resulted in 2% conversion growth;
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Every 100 milliseconds of load acceleration resulted in 1% incremental revenue growth.
It goes without saying about the importance of website performance optimization if a giant like Google ever faced a 20% drop in traffic because pages were loading 5 seconds longer than they used to.
Except for the conversion rates that we have already mentioned, website load time optimization can influence visibility and user experience. Let’s fix this:
visibility
The Google search engine takes into account a myriad of different factors when ranking websites. And the time it takes for a website to load a page is among them. There is a pretty clear logic behind this. In the eyes of Google’s algorithms, websites that load pages for too long create a poor user experience and should be demoted in rankings.
The same with a mobile version of the websites. Google punishes websites that cannot adapt to mobile or any other device, regardless of the device from which a search query was made. The company wants to give visitors the best experience in this way.
Experience
As said, the loading time influences not only the ranking, but also the number of loyal customers. Nobody likes inconvenient products in 2018. The more efficient your website is, the higher the level of customer satisfaction you will achieve.
How to measure website speed
Before getting started with site speed optimization, it’s a good idea to learn how fast the website is running at this stage, as well as identify the reasons for its slowness.
The following tools can help you measure website speed:
website test
This free tool will help you perform website load time analysis and generate a convenient waterfall chart. Also, you can run multiple tests to see the averaged results. So it’s pretty easy to define what exactly causes load time delays.
pingdom
This is another tool that will help you measure website speed performance. This service is equipped with a variety of useful features. It generates simple reports and gives you data-driven advice (for example, steps to take to improve speed). Please note that Pingdom does not have a free version and pricing starts at $14.95 per month.
low YS
YSlow can also advise on optimization and generate clear statistics. The main difference from the tools mentioned above is that it is a browser extension.
https://www.cleverroad.com/blog/these-9-website-performance-optimization-techniques-will-help-you-speed-up-your-website
