Site Speed is Paramount to Your Success

In the market today, user experience is a key discipline, and the speed is a metric which will determine how the user experience is for your visitors. If you fail to optimize your content, consider how your hosting or server will perform during peak times or create an experience which works across both desktop and mobile – you’ll fail. A failure in the user experience will really frustrate your visitors. You’ll naturally lose people to slow loading times (even a second too long and they’ll be gone), but, even worse, you could damage your reputation if the user shares their anger on social. Don't forget, mobile traffic is growing rapidly so you should take extra time to test the experience across both desktop and mobile devices to be sure everyone gets a good experience. 

Google and other search engines measure your site speed and use this metric when forming your search rank. If you're optimizing your website for search, but fail to prioritize site speed, you’ll lose important traffic from this vital source of inbound users. Organic search will drive one of the largest numbers of new visitors to your website, but if your website is slow to load, users will click on to the competitor before you’ve even got the chance to show them your great offering.

Be sure to always keep updated on the best practice guidelines which Google and other search engines release – they outline how your website should perform. If you fail to stay updated, the search engines will penalize you, and you'll rank lower. Google has more information available.

If you fail either of the above, you’ll see an impact to your business performance: A lack of new inbound leads, signups and customers. Users will click away before they learn more, they’ll be gone before the email signup box appears, and they certainly won’t wait around to sign up if the website for application doesn’t load in a flash. It's therefore vital that you take advantage of data from Google Analytics to monitor performance and bounce rate. Website data, automated testing and real user tests will give you good insight into what is working is what issues need to be addressed.

We all know the importance of the internet in driving business performance, so be sure your website is blazing fast for everyone – whether on mobile or desktop, wherever they're located in the world and even during times of peak traffic.