Google has used site speed as a factor in its ranking algorithm for about three years now. While the weight of the speed factor is up for debate, what’s not up for discussion is how much site speed affects conversions. “Every second visitors have to wait for a page to load is a proven loss in sales,” writes Stoney deGeyter, president of Pole Position Marketing in a post for Search Engine Land.
According to an infographic from SmartBear Software, which pulled data from various resources, 57 percent of users will leave a site after three seconds. Also, with each additional second of load time comes an 11 percent decline in page views, a 16 percent drop in customer satisfaction and a 7 percent dip in conversions.
According to deGeyter, there are many things to do to cut down a website’s load time. Among the tips he shares are to get a faster Web server, streamline code, optimize images and use a page speed optimizer (e.g. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool).
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