Infographic: You Need a Speedy Website, and Here is why

The truism that time is money is particularly keenly felt online. People expect sites to be almost instant, and anything that takes more than a second to load is just not good enough. Speed is even more important in the online shopping sector.

The data in the infographic made by the Hosting Tribunal leaves no room for doubt: sites that take longer than just a few seconds to load will see their sales and overall visitors drop dramatically.

So how will site load speed affect search rankings, customer satisfaction, sales and conversions?

Customer Experience – 75% of users will not return to a webpage if it takes more than 4 seconds to load, as it has an overall negative effect on the customer’s user experience. The retail giant AliExpress reduced the load time of the pages by 36% and recorded a 10.5% increase in orders and a 27% increase in conversions for new customers.

SEO – Website speed is vital when it comes to SEO . If your site takes up to 10 seconds to load, the the bounce rate increases by 123%. Higher bounce rate shows the search engines that visitors don’t find your page useful. SmartFurniture.com sped up its site, and this lead to a 20% increase in organic search traffic.

Conversion – Just a second delay in page response can result in a 7% decrease in conversions, therefore the slower your website, the less successful your site will be. Walmart proved this point as for every second of improved speed, they experienced up to a 2% increase in conversions.

It is not just on desktop sites where page load speed is important. With the increase in mobile use for online shopping, online retailers need to ensure that their apps and mobile sites are also up to scratch.

53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Mobile sites that load in 5 seconds or less earn up to twice the revenue. If anything, retailers should be putting even more effort into their mobile sites, as 12% of users expect their phones to be faster than their desktop.

As an ecommerce store owner, there is a lot to think about and keep track of, but the speed of your site certainly shouldn’t be something that is forgotten. A slow site could be your downfall, resulting in less customers, less sales, and a lower Google ranking.

To find out more about the effects that page load speed can have on your site, take a look at the infographic below.