What if a website that someone clicks on, but it takes 10 seconds to show up? It indicates that the website is in poor condition and users who choose to visit may leave the site in 2 seconds.
In today’s fast digital world, wait is the term that most people are frustrated about and it is where the website speed is important for a business. Keeping your users interested and creating a good impression in the user’s minds is the primary benefit achieved from the optimum website speed. This article is about the importance of website speed in digital marketing and its influence on user experience.
User experience and conversion: Connection with website speed
When the website speed is not optimized, it directly affects the conversion rate and user experience. The real scenario is that slow websites lead to low conversion rates, high bounce rates and a low number of page views.
How does website speed in digital marketing business affect?
Conversion rate defines the number of website visitors vs how many of those visitors define actions (sign-up, submit a form, click a contact number etc.). If the load speed of the website is low, then users leave the site without taking action.
- Bounce rate defines the percentage of visitors to a particular site who jump or leave the site after viewing only one page. A higher bounce rate indicates a red signal to the website; one such indication is website loading speed.
- Page view defines when users visit a page or navigate to a different page in the site, then it will be counted. The higher number of page views indicates the user’s desire to take action and interest towards the site. Whereas a low number of page views may indicate the user is not getting what they are searching for or poor website speed.
- For a business, a slow-loading site makes people frustrated which leads to closing, or cancelling the page. Therefore, it is for business to ensure the site is in good shape and its indicators show green. The above-mentioned factors are important for ranking your page, it is necessary for the business to stay optimized and maintain the balance.
This is especially relevant for a company whose website has a lengthy conversion funnel. When a conversion funnel comprises numerous steps and pages, there is always a return; however, this drop-off is increased when visitors attempt to navigate a slower website while navigating a more complex conversion funnel.
How to find my page loading speed is low?
Here are some of the practical assessments you can try which enhance user experience.
- Does the page have successful navigation?
- Is server response time quick or slow?
- Does the page take time to render the content which users search for?
- Is it still loading or easy to interact with the page?
- Is the image of the page still not visible?
When you know the answer to these questions, you may get to know the site’s health whether it is positively or negatively creating an impact. However, if your business website needs attention, you can connect your technical queries with the Best website design and development company in India. Now agencies and SEO experts give pre-advice and guidance to the business as digitalization grows.
How does brand reputation connect with the website speed?
Website speed has a significant impact on the brand perception in the minds of the users. To create a brand reputation, here are the ways you need to ensure,
- How often do you monitor your website speed? Though your site lacks of developer or SEO team, you should create one. Regular maintenance is important to have balance in the performance. It allows us to stay updated and take action if the site speed is reduced and acknowledge the elements that affect the site speed.
- Significant features of the hosting provider: The server significantly impacts the website speed which offers robust server resources and minimal interruption. To enhance the website response time, then increase RAM or processing power and develop a strong server infrastructure.
- Test and optimize: SEO experts are usually responsible for website speed optimization which requires continuous assessment and improvement. Google PageSpeed GTmetrix are two valuable tools which provide suggestions and performance of the website. Conduct A/B testing to evaluate the impact of speed optimization on user behaviour and conversion rates.
Page speed vs social media marketing:
- Slow internet speeds create a significant challenge to social media marketing since websites that load quickly are preferred in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- When a website loads slowly due to weak internet, users on social media platforms are likely to navigate away from the link and go to another post or website.
- This decreases the chances that users would engage with the content or recommend it to their followers, which lowers the content’s visibility and the campaign’s performance on social media.
- Slow-loading websites are less likely to generate interaction and sales due to their reduced exposure.
Mobile optimization vs Page speed:
Mobile optimization is the process of creating websites that load quickly, are responsive, and are easy to use on mobile devices. Digital marketing and mobile optimization can both be negatively impacted by slow internet.
When a website takes too long to load on a mobile device, users are more likely to give up and hunt for alternatives because of slow internet. Lower engagement, low conversion rates, and decreased visibility can all be defects of digital marketing campaigns.
Emerging technologies that support website speed:
With digital marketing success, website speed is important. Slow-landing web pages which influence the high bounce rates and loss of potential customers.
The technologies you may actually be in use are progressive web apps which offer native app-like experiences to users that improve user engagement and retention. Another tech is serverless architecture. It removes the need for a dedicated server, reduces website maintenance costs and improves flexibility.
Tips to enhance the website speed:
Whatever websites are created and launched on search engines, you need to confirm how they’re performing and the purpose of creation is achieved. Page speed is a common term that Google highlights as one of the ranking factors. If it is not SEO optimized, then your site may see its effect. Here are some of the tips which may confirm whether the site speed is optimum.
Image optimization:
Images are an important factor in the online website that has a great impact on site speed. If it is not optimized, then it may affect the overall site performance. Compressing images may have negative shades to their quality, thus it is essential to reduce page load times. It is certain that the higher the image files, slow down the website speed which leads to a higher bounce rate and reduces engagement.
HTTP requests:
It is safe to reduce the number of HTTP requests to the server for every element. It includes web pages, images, stylesheets, scripts and more. With each request, it takes time and more requests to the page have slowed down the loading speed of the website. It is better to reduce the number of elements on the page which is important to reduce the service request. How to do? The better idea is to use CSS and JavaScript files. Thus, you can keep an eye on the server response time.
Browser cache:
What do you know about the browser cache? It is an approach that stores the static resources from websites that include images, CSS, and JavaScript files on the user’s device. Whenever the user revisits the site, the cached resources let the site load immediately and eliminate the process of fetching the contents from the server again. This actually reduces the page load speed time.
Content Delivery Network:
It is a network of servers which is located in different geographical locations and some of the websites are familiar with Cloudflare, one of the CDNs. How it works? The users access to the website, then CDN identifies the server to the user’s location and delivers the website content. It lessens the latency and enhances the site speed for the users who are distant from the server location. This CDN is helpful for sites which have a global audience or receive high traffic which gives a better user experience irrespective of their location.
Conclusion:
In the early days, websites were expected to load slowly but now growth of technology and people’s preferences turned out to be websites that load fast. Now, Google gives preference to the fast-loading sites which is beneficial for the users. This idea of managing the websites establishes the Content marketing services agency in Coimbatore which offer business confidence, enhance user experience, conversion rates and SEO optimisation and create a site which drives sales and revenue. There is a need to improve digital marketing campaigns which need to be tailored to the specific objectives, industry and model of each business. Site speed is important for your marketing campaigns which is the combined effect of implementing the above strategies and techniques.