Is Your Website’s Speed Slowing You Down?

 Posted on June 30, 2016 in Mobile-Friendly Sites

If you have ever seen or heard an advertisement for UPS, you have probably heard the slogan “Moving at the speed of business.” While this maxim certainly makes sense for a package delivery company, it could just as easily be applied to website development and management. Today, more than ever, the speed of your website is crucial to providing a positive user experience that results in strong conversion rates from browser to prospect to satisfied client.

Understanding Site Speed

Your website—even a simple one—is comprised of many different plugins, modules, and scripts, each one designed to perform a specific task or display certain information. When a user accesses your site, all of these features take time to load so that the page functions correctly and looks the way it is supposed to look. Each individual element may only take a fraction of a second to load, but loading the entire site can take significantly longer, especially if some of the scripts are larger and contain redirects to other places on the internet.

Site Speed Is Often Overlooked

It is, in many cases, easy to forget about your website’s speed when you are deciding on how to design your site. You may have given a great deal of thought to which pages you wanted to include, the colors and images, and presenting a polished, professional image. Loading speed may have been just about the furthest thing from your mind. A site with strong visual appeal, however, means very little if users get fed up waiting for the site to load and move on to a faster page.

Search Engine Rankings

Your site’s speed also factors into how Google and other search engines rank the site in search results. Search engine algorithms are designed to determine the websites that will provide a user with the information they are looking for in the most efficient manner possible. If Google analyzes your site and finds it to be too slow, the search engine calculates that users are less likely to be satisfied, and will rank other sites above yours.

How Slow Is Too Slow?

There is not a set standard for how fast your site should be, nor exactly how long is too long for a site to load. Studies suggest, however, that most internet users are only willing to wait about three to four seconds for a site to load before abandoning the page. Faster load times means more users staying on your site and accessing more pages within it. User engagement is one the biggest keys to converting casual browsers into interested and satisfied clients.

While free tools exist to help you monitor your site speed, understanding how to fix any problems you encounter can be complex and time-consuming. That is where the professionals at OVC, INC. can help. Since 2008, we have been providing state-of-the-art websites and online marketing services to attorneys from coast to coast. Our award-winning sites are dynamic, functional, mobile-friendly, and fast. For a free analysis of your site, call 630-635-8000 and speak to a member of our team today.

Sources:

http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/your-website-design-should-load-in-4-seconds/

http://www.business.com/information-technology/simple-ways-to-make-your-website-faster/

http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/new-google-tool-test-mobile-friendliness-website-speed-free-01582575#rwbuAmMxqWxtwWT9.97