Every second DOES count!

Each day has 86,400 seconds, and the chances are we never make the best use of all these seconds we get each day. When we think about it, a second might not even seem like it would matter. However, online, every second counts, and in this day and age no one has the time to wait for a website to load!

More people in the UK now view websites using their mobile phone than on traditional desk top computers or laptops. The average the loading time for a website, when being visited on a mobile using a standard 3G connection, is around 19 seconds¹. 19 seconds doesn't sound like a long time, but 53% of visits will be abandoned if a mobile site takes over than three seconds to load ².

Having a quick loading website is more important then ever, Sites that load in 5 seconds vs 19 seconds observed:

• 25% higher ad viewability ³
• 70% longer average sessions ⁴
• 35% lower bounce rates ⁵

As well as the reasons above why the speed at which your website loads is so critical to your online success, there are a further two which could have the most significant impact.

Slow pages harm your SEO

Google has indicated beyond a shadow of a doubt that website speed, is one of the essential signals used by its algorithm to rank web pages. In fact, it will become a critical element of the new mobile-first indexing being rolled out by Google. You could be implementing all your SEO strategies correctly, but without optimising your website first, it's like entering a Formula1 car into the Monaco Grand Prix with bald tires. You're never going to compete with your rivals.

Slow pages reduce conversions

Getting users to convert is a hard. There are often numerous steps they have to take (e-commerce checkouts usually have 3 or 4 pages) and then factor in the loading time for each of those pages, and you could be losing lots of potential sales/customers. A one-second delay in your pages loading time could result in a 7% reduction in conversions. This means if your online sales are around £250 a day, that's nearly £6,500 a year in sales you are losing.

What can you do?

First of all, check your score at https://testmysite.withgoogle.com . If you don't score at least a "Good", then you can either try some of these simple tips below:

• Make sure your website follows the mobile first methodology
• Make sure your website is using SSL (https)
• Make sure all your images are compressed and optimised for the web
• Make sure your web host is serving compressed (Gzip) content
• If you're running WordPress, check the number of plugins used and remove the ones you don't need. WordPress plugins inject multiple CSS and JS files into your pages which can dramatically slow down your site.

Alternatively, let us help you. We recently improved a clients' website loading performance by 77%. Get in touch now and let our expertees help you. Call 0333 987 4343 today or complete the form below.