Synthetic Monitoring
Website users are impatient and expect the domains they visit to rapidly load. Milliseconds count if you want to keep your customers happy. Here are three ways website speed impacts your digital efforts.
1. Google includes page speed as a ranking factor.
Since 2010, page speed has been included in Google’s search engine algorithm. This is largely measured by the total load time recorded.
Google ran a test on its own search engine to see what would happen when they intentionally slowed down the time required to process search results. In one experiment, when the response time was reduced by 100 – 400 milliseconds, the number of searches per user decreased from 0.2 % – 0.6%.
Considering that the processing time was reduced by less than half of one second, it’s easy to see how precious website speed can be.
2. Web page load time directly affects the user experience.
Whether users are looking to obtain information or make a purchase, there are numerous studies validating the necessity for swift page loads.
After Shopzilla made strides to increase website speed, they saw a 25% increase in page views and a 7% – 12% increase in revenue. Another study found that a delay of just one second can reduce conversions by 7%.
Simply put, slow websites negatively impact usability and create dissatisfaction.
3. No one has the time or patience to wait for a slow website.
File this one under common sense. But, there’s more data to back up this claim. A study by Akamai from 2006 found that 75% of people would not return to a website that took 4 or more seconds to load. Being that this study is now several years old, you can bet your bottom dollar that users are even less patient today.
Perhaps the most important factor to consider is the expectation by nearly half of users is that their domain of choice will load in two seconds or less.
Apica Systems improves website and app performance.
If your website loads at the speed of a snail, turn to Apica for an upgrade to cheetah loading speed.
Our suite of load testing and web performance tools will arm you with critical information about bottlenecks in your system in addition to alerts and reports that provide insight for methods to pump up your website performance.
Contact Apica today to learn about optimizing your website.