A website's loading time is
important. We can confidently conclude that slow sites have usability
and SEO issues. Because, we know that users hate waiting for web
pages to load and that Google uses site speed as a factor for its
search rankings. But, quantitatively, what are the other effects of
having a slow website? This week, we will talk about the
transformation of website speed with a few examples.
Let us look at some cases of tech companies sharing what they have learned about web optimization.
- While discussing his work on Big Data ,amazon shared the significance of site speed in terms of revenue. Last year alone, Amazon's estimated revenue totaled $74.5 billion. Based on Amazon's disclosure, increasing page loading times by just a fraction of a second would cost Amazon $745 million a year in lost revenue!
-
Bing performed an experiment
testing to see what would happen if their pages loaded 1.5 seconds
longer than usual.Among other key metrics, they saw decreases in:
- -User satisfaction (-3.8%)
- -Revenue per user (-4.3%)
- -Number of clicks (-4.4%).
- Yahoo tested the effects of displaying more results in Google searches: 10 search results vs. 30 search results. Analyzing their data, they witnessed 25% fewer searches from users that saw more search results. After further investigation, they attributed this drop in searches (i.e. page impressions) to increased page load times. In conclusion, Google discovered that even a few milliseconds of delay could lead to a notable reduction in page impressions.
When some e-commerce companies talk about their experience, they says witnessed amazing growth in important metrics by improving their website's speed: Conversion rates increased by 7-12% and Page views increased by 25%... So, optimizing website performance became crucial for brands.
Website speed should be a high priority if you want to build great websites. We are also thinking that having a slow website will have negative effects on revenue, conversion rates, usability, and UX. Please note that, your website is your brand's biggest promotional tool.