Some 70% of consumers say that load time website affects their purchasing decision. According to WebsiteBuilderExpert the longer a webpage takes to load, the more chances that people will not stay on the website.
If more people don’t stay long enough on a website because of slow load time the site will have a high bounce rate. The report Website Load Time Statistics: Why Speed Matters in 2020 high bounce rate will also affect a website’s ranking. A high bounce rate will tell search engines that users don’t find the page content useful consequently lowering its ranking. Thus, highlighting the impact of having a slow load time on a website’s effectiveness.
Often the reasons for slow load time on websites can be easily identified. It can include issues related to web hosting; quality and size of images and files; plugins; browsers used and cache clearance rates.
Ideally, websites load within three seconds, or two seconds if it’s an eCommerce site. The two-to-three second mark is the turning point where bounce rates skyrocket. Some 40% of consumers will wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a site. Customer conversation rates also are impacted by 7% for a mere one-second delay.
A report by Backlinko found for a website to fully load on a desktop it averages 10.3 seconds. While it takes an average of 27.3 seconds to load on mobile devices. Faster upload speed time makes visitors feel stress-free and in control. But a little more than 10 seconds could have negative consequences such as frustration leading to high bounce rates.
Why Speed is Important
Pages that load within two seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%. A marginal increase load time of five seconds can send bounce rates rocketing to 38%. This means visitor’s patience on websites is very slim.
delays in load time not only cause frustration but also impact future visits to a website. One in four visitors abandon a website if it takes more than four seconds to load. Among visitors to websites, almost half (46%) don’t return to websites that take too long to load. This has also larger ramifications for eCommerce sites as they stand to lose not only visibility but also revenues.
In fact, 64% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a visit to a website will decide to shop elsewhere next time. The threshold for dissatisfaction is also high. A one-second delay could result in lowering customer satisfaction by 16%. A ten-second delay could result in a 65% reduction in customer satisfaction.
The lack of patience applies to businesses of all sizes. For example, the BBC loses an additional 10% of users for every extra second it takes for its site to load. Conversely, if Yahoo!’s site experiences a reduction of load time by just 0.4 seconds its traffic increases by 9%. If an eCommerce site making $100,000 a day experiences a one-second delay it could lose $2.5 million in yearly sales.
The figures also support this. Around 88% of internet users choose online retailers that deliver a high-performance website experience.
What Should Businesses Do
Your website’s speed can potentially impact your business. High bounce rates mean that you are losing on sales and a drop in search engine performance. Around $18 billion is lost annually because of abandoned shopping carts
This is why it’s important to optimize mobile page speeds as much as possible, as it is where most browsing takes place. Studies indicate that mobile minutes accounted for 77% of online browsing in the U.S. in 2019. With 96% of the U.S. population owning mobile phones, of which 81% are smartphone users it amounts to tens of millions of people. Furthermore, a quarter of U.S. adults say they are almost constantly online. This underlines the importance of having quick load times for your website.
The website experience you offer your clients should be as important as your in-store experience. Optimizing your website’s speed is just a start. You will also need to offer a great user experience as well. This means having engaging content, great graphics and user-friendly navigation.
Your website might be fast to upload but it is meaningless if users find it difficult to navigate through it. The rule of thumb here is to design your website with your customers in mind.
Take a look at the WebsiteBuilderExpert infographic below for more.
Image: Depositphotos.com
This article, "Optimal Web Site Load Time Speeds and Why They Matter (INFOGRAPHIC)" was first published on Small Business Trends
August 16, 2020 at 12:31PM
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Samson Haileyesus, Khareem Sudlow
