Why Speed Matters: A Website Owner’s Dilemma

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Why Speed Matters: A Website Owner’s Dilemma
John Nelson

Glopinion by

John Nelson

May 28, 2019

What makes a website great and click-worthy? Is it the design? The content? The name? These are all some factors that separate what’s worth exploring from what’s not. However: Many website owners tend to forget one of the most crucial factors - the overall performance and speed of their site.

 

 

Website speed is basically the time it takes for a website to fully load. Recent studies suggest that 53% of people will leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

The trend itself is not at all surprising, as connection speeds have drastically improved compared to what they used to be back in the day.

Apart from that, there are other compelling reasons why website speed matters. Let’s have a closer look at some of them.

Website Speed Affects SEO

SEO or search engine optimization dictates where a website will place on the search results of a search engine. For instance, Google uses various metrics to determine where a website will rank, such as content, its placement on RankBrain, and - yes - speed.

Now:

Speed is a key ranking factor on Google. Google’s algorithm works in a way that decreases the number of viewers a website can potentially get if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. So, the slower the website, the lower it will place on Google’s SERP. And, as every internet user knows perfectly well, anything beyond the first page of Google is already no man’s land.

Slow Loading Has Long-Term Consequences

If a website loads slowly, that isn’t the only problem it will face. There are long-term consequences as well. The longer a website performs poorly, that harder it will be for it to gain a larger audience later on.

This is because a website’s reputation will be built on speed and its visitor base. If a website owner expects to be at the top, he needs to optimize his website for speed immediately.

People Will Want Faster Websites

We are all inclined to look for more and more improvements on the websites we browse. The standards of speed we have now will definitely become higher in the future. Consequently, website owners should strive to meet the current standards as soon as possible, so that they don’t lag behind every other website next year or even next month.

First Impressions Last

People can’t help making first impressions of the websites they visit, and the very first thing that people will judge a website for is its speed. If a website’s speed does not meet users’ expectations, there’s a good chance they won’t visit it ever again.

It gets worse:

The visitor won’t recommend the website to anyone else, further denting its reputation. It’s a vicious circle.

Here’s the bottom line we got from an informal conversation with Nick Galov from

Speed is not everything that makes a website great. However, it does play a huge part in directing visitors to a certain page. If website owners want to stay at the top, they will need to make the proper adjustments to make sure their websites load quickly as soon as possible.

 

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