Tags: website design, website load time, generate revenue, google algorithm, mobile devices
Website load time affects revenue generation
There’s nothing more frustrating to internet users than a slow-loading webpage. That’s why it’s important that in addition to having a sophisticated layout, easy navigation, and an intuitive checkout process on your website, you have a server with quick load times. Today’s culture values the instant gratification mentality and the longer people have to wait, the more likely it is that they’ll click away before your company’s website loads.
Factors that influence load times
Forbes.com contributor Mike Quinn, who is also president of Yellow Bridge Interactive, said there are a couple common reasons for slow website load times, including ???low server memory, competing resources, or data influx.??? Another reason is high traffic, as might happen during popular sales or during holiday shopping seasons. Having a graphic-heavy design will also slow load time as high pixel count images load individually and can take seconds or even minutes to load.
An easy way to check on your website’s load times is to use it yourself. Which pages load faster than others, and why? Enlist other people to test the website or get feedback from customers following their purchases to measure their satisfaction with their shopping experience.
Impact of slower load speed
It seems crazy that a few seconds or milliseconds could make such a difference, but they do. A Jupiter Research study found, ???The average online shopper in 2006 expected a web page to load in four seconds. Today, those same shoppers expect web pages to load in two.??? In just a few years, the time people are willing to wait has been halved, and that number is only likely to get shorter in the future. A single day of poor web performance could lose you valuable customers who will shop competitors??? sites just so they don’t have to wait those two extra seconds.
Being mobile device-friendly
Meanwhile, web design is only getting trickier. Google’s algorithm has now started taking into account loading speed when they rank websites. People also shop from a number of devices with various sizes of screens, so you’ll need to use responsive web design to accommodate this. You’ll need to check the load speed of your site and the accuracy of its automatically-correcting aspect ratio on a variety of devices before you can be sure it’s functioning the way it should.
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Source: forbes.com/sites/theyec/2014/02/19/how-to-optimize-your-websites-performance-and-keep-customers-happy/