Most of the business owners and marketing executives we meet with for the first time are concerned about the look of their website, how many leads it is or isn’t generating, or where it ranks on Google’s search listings. What most never really consider is the speed of their website, even though that affects all of these other results in an indirect way.
Simply put, if your business website is too slow, it’s going to affect everything you do online. To help you understand why, and how you can fix any lingering issues, there are a few things you have to know…
Why Speed Matters so Much
Those of us who were around during the dial up internet era remember a time when people would wait minutes and minutes for a page to load. That seems like a very quaint and outdated notion now, with most estimates suggesting that you’ll lose around a quarter of your website visits after three seconds of page loading time. People simply won’t hang around to see your content, not when your faster competitors are just a click away.
However, abandoned website visits aren’t your only problem when it comes to slow-loading web pages. There are a few other problems that will inevitably come into play:
- Google and the other search engines have started paying attention to website speed. You’ll lose ground in the search listings if your pages load slowly.
- Search engines and social media platforms also measure user experience. If lots of people are leaving your site because it loads slowly, that will further depress new visits.
- Mobile devices continue to become the default choice for many web searchers. Speed is even more critical when your customers are working with slower connections and limited data plans.
When you have fewer people coming to your site, and less of them sticking around, that defeats the purpose of having an internet marketing plan in the first place. Luckily, there are some easy steps you can follow to speed your website up.
How to Make Your Website Faster
When new clients come to us and we determine that their websites aren’t as fast as they could be, we usually begin by fixing a few issues that slow pages down:
- First, we clear away coding errors, unnecessary plugins, and extraneous HTML. These can cause all kinds of issues that slow websites down.
- Often, a web hosting upgrade is needed. For a few dollars a day, you can move your website onto a better server that responds more quickly (and is safer and more reliable).
- Sometimes, images, apps, and other on-page elements need to be optimized. This could be because they’re too large, or because they won’t display properly on mobile devices.
These three fixes don’t constitute the end of the story when it comes to website speed, of course, but making these changes can go a long way towards speeding a website up and reversing the downward spiral of declining certain visits and user engagement we warned about.
Let’s Check (and Fix) Your Website Speed Issues
It’s ironic, but website speed issues are usually hard for business owners to detect, but easy for web designers to fix. If you aren’t sure whether your pages are loading quickly enough, particularly on mobile devices, your first step should be to call the Weblinx team today at 630-551-0334 x1 and let us run a test and audit to measure website speed. From there, we can make some specific recommendations.
Don’t worry, though, speeding up a website usually doesn’t take a lot of time and money. And, it can make a very big difference on your online marketing results. So don’t slow yourself down – connect with Weblinx today to get started!