We are in a digital era where having a website is no longer enough for business to stand out in the industry. Potential customers are now turning to the search engine result page to find what they are looking for and get all the answers they need before making a final decision.
Because of this new customer behaviour, many people are wondering what should business owners do to gain more customers and grow their revenue? The answer lis a very simple one-focusing on website performance.
While SEO strategies such as excellent content, quality backlinks, and well-written meta descriptions are essential, they will not help much if your performance is not optimised. Improving how quickly your website loads for users gives your business better online visibility.
It also allows potential customers to discover your website faster than ever. Want more? It is one of the easiest ways to grow your business and increase revenue. Plus, it is not as technically complex as you might think.
What is Website Performance?
Website performance shows how quickly and responsively your website loads and functions every time a visitor clicks on it. In digital marketing, when your website loads and displays content faster, it creates a better user experience.
This performance is an important element in accelerating your business success and determines how customers perceive your brand.
A slow website often leads to the following:
- Discouraged and leaving the website
- Loss of interest
- Dissatisfied customers
- Damage to the brand’s reputation
- Lower ranking in the Search Engine Result Pages
- Decreased conversions and revenue
No business wants its customers to be frustrated or have a low conversion rate because their website takes a long time to load. Also, no customer wants to spend all their energy on a website that does not load onetime. If your website can’t meet their demands, they’ll move on to the next available one.
Why is Website Performance Important for Business Growth?
Many people that visit your website use different devices and web browsers. Therefore, it is important to ensure that yours runs smoothly for all. If your website performance is constantly not good, it will surely cause long or permanent damage to your business growth.
Now, we are going to mention some of the reasons you should optimize your website performance and business growth.
First Impressions Count
No matter how your potential customer find you, which can be through a Google search, social media, or ads, their first experience determines if they will stay or leave.
According to research, users make up their minds about your website based on their experience within the first 30 seconds. If your website loads slowly or is visually unstable, it immediately creates a negative impression. Whereas a fast and well-designed website makes them believe your brand is professional, reliable, and trustworthy.
User Experience (UX) Boost Trust
User experience optimization simply means ensuring every visitor who lands on your website is satisfied. Remember, the goal of website performance is to retain users, and allowing them to find what they need quickly makes them trust your brand.
If they have to wait for a long time for pages to load, receive error messages or experience inaccessibility, their experience will be poor, making them abandon your website and choose others. So, a good UX makes potential customers trust your brand, increasing the chances of them becoming loyal customers.
Influence SEO Ranking
Search Engine Optimization is one of the best strategies for every business to grow their online visibility and attract more traffic. But here’s the catch: Google and other search engines prioritize websites that load quickly and provide a seamless experience when ranking them on their search page.
No matter how strong your content or keyword strategy is, it will still struggle to rank on the first page if it has a bad performance. This results in less visibility, lower clicks, and little to no opportunities for growth.
Better Conversion Rates
According to research, a second delay in page responsiveness can lead to a more than 5% reduction in conversions. Also, nothing less than 35% of users will surely leave your website without looking back if it takes a very long time to load.
Whether you're selling products, collecting leads, or promoting services, slow website performance can directly make your conversion rate low. While a website with a faster load speed and responsiveness significantly increases the number of users who engage with your website.
Ways To Increase Your Website Performance
Images Optimizing
Images usually load slower on a website when their file sizes are bigger than the one of HTML or CSS. Fortunately, this problem can be solved by compressing the image file itself. With this process, you are able to reduce the resolution and dimensions of the images you are using on your website.
Reduce HTTP Requests
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol allows a web browser to send a request to a server for specific information and display the result on a webpage. Many web pages often require numerous requests and each of these requests can increase the overall load time for a webpage.
The only way to solve this problem is by reducing the total number of HTTP requests as small as possible. When you do a speed test, it will surely allow you to identify which HTTP requests takes a longer time.
Block Unnecessary JavaScript
JavaScript is used by developers to make websites interact and function perfectly. Therefore, when there is a lot of JavaScript code running before the main content is visible, it can slow down the time the users see and interact with your website.
This situation often affects large websites where multiple developers or content managers contribute different scripts over time. To improve website performance, it is important to constantly do website audit. This can be done through web performance tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights.
These tools are able to examine how your website loads and highlight JavaScript files that stop important content from loading.
Use Browser Caching
The browser cache is popularly known as a temporary storage space that allows the browser to save and reuse content files, thereby reducing network traffic. This without doubt increases the time it takes for your website to load. That is not all, it also ensures everyone that visits your website has the best experience.
Limit Redirect Usage
A redirect is the process whereby users are directed to another page or location when they click on your website.
While redirects are sometimes useful, too much of it can create a chain reaction that significantly slows down your website. By limiting redirect usage, you ultimately lead to better load times and a more seamless browsing expert
The Bottom Line
There is more to a website than SEO strategies, great content, and perfect images. No matter your business and industry, website performance metrics are crucial for business growth. Using web performance optimization tools might seem complex in the beginning, but they are very simple to use. When your website performs smoothly, visitors stay longer, engage more, and are will convert.
Unify Wizards understands that a fast, responsive, and high-performing website is a necessity for every business to grow and succeed. Our expert helps businesses optimize their website performance for better growth and revenue.