For many small to medium sized Sarasota business operations, the website conundrum is a tough one. Long gone are the days that you could simply build a website and customers would eventually find you. Being competitive now means continually updating your site with relevant content, staying on top of the search engine algorithm changes and employing SEO tactics such as adwords and pay-per-click. As applications become more data driven and additional customers are making their way to your URL, you may find yourself continually adding and changing your site’s functions. Unfortunately, this could leave you with a potentially business-killing situation – a slow website.
We understand that you may hear those two words and think – why is a slow website such a big deal? But this seemingly trivial problem (among all the problems you have to troubleshoot every day) actually has the ability to significantly impact your business, and not in a good way.
Consequences of a Slow Website
Loss of Traffic: According to Akamai Research, 64% of people expect a website to load within 4 seconds or they will move on. It gets worse for those not paying attention – 47% expect the site to load within 2 seconds. That means that nearly half of those who clicked on your link are likely to leave if your website loads too slowly. All of those potential customers gone before they saw your flashy new logo, your innovative new products, or your amazing new ordering system.
Search Engine Ranking Penalties: You may be surprised to hear that Google actually penalizes sites with slow load times. This means that even with SEO strategies in place and great content, your site may not even make it onto the first page of searches – and thus will rarely be found by potential customers. Many businesses spend a significant chunk of their marketing budget in attempts to drive people to their website. It would be a shame to find out that the reason you can’t rank higher is simply that your site isn’t loading fast enough.
Poor Experience / High Bounce Rate: It may seem impossible to believe, but studies show that the average consumer’s attention span is a mere 8 seconds. This means if you can’t capture their attention within 8 seconds, they are statistically likely to click away – usually to a competitors website. If that entire 8 seconds is comprised of them waiting for the product page to load, you’ve lost a sale. This results in a high bounce rate and less business for your company. What is a bounce? In website terminology, a bounce is when a user visits your site but leaves without interacting or performing any activity. No matter which page they enter your site (home page or blog page, for instance) they leave without looking around any further. A high bounce rate indicates that you are not capturing consumer interest and enticing them to browse your site. The number one cause of high bounce rate is a slow website.
When a website takes too long to load, even if the consumer doesn’t leave, it can result in timeouts and crashed pages – neither are good for business.
There are several reasons why your business may have a slow website, from unoptimized images to a lack of HTTP compression. If you notice your site performing poorly and don’t have the expertise onsite to help you, call an IT services firm immediately. Don’t lose another customer or give away another sale – call Alliance IT and let us help speed things up.
