Why is website performance important?

A Slow Website can Sink your Online Business

Website performance is often overlooked, but is a critical factor in the success of your website. A slow website can have a profound impact on user experience, and impacts your bottom line in a number of ways including: poor performance in search engines, lost visitors, decreased engagement and conversions, and higher advertising costs.

Poor Performance in Search Results

Google uses performance data in its search algorithm – so a slow website can impact your sites page rank, and hurt your placement in search results. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a great tool for checking the performance of your website.

Lost Customers and Sales

According to a report by the BBC, almost half of visitors will leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. If you’re a retailer, a slow website can hit your bottom line hard. According to Kissmetrics, 79% of shoppers who experience performance problems with a website say that they won’t return.

Increased Costs

If you’re using Google AdWords, a slow website can cost you more to advertise your products and services. In AdWords, Google assigns quality scores for keywords, landing pages, and ad relevance. A slow landing page will impact your quality score, and make your ad less competitive in AdWords auctions. In the long run, you’ll end up paying more to place your ad competitively in search results.