PageSpeedInsights
01/04/2021

Slow Website – Is it a Problem?

With every second of delays, companies lose business. The number of page views decreases and the percentage of those who go through the intended process (conversion) decreases. At the same time, the user experience will be worse, increasing the bounce rate.

Slow website

It’s extremely frustrating to come across a website that takes a long time to load on your phone or computer. A slow website is the main reason why I lose interest in what I am looking at, whether it is a product I want to buy or information I need. My user experience is ruined after such an experience and therefore it is not likely that I will try again with this brand but will instead look to their competitors. As a result, the bounce rate will be higher for the website in question, which is a good measure to look at in the page’s analytics. With every 1 second delay, companies lose business, because there will be fewer page views and the proportion of those who go through the intended process (i.e. conversion) and at the same time the user experience will be worse, as stated above. In 2018, Google gave priority to so-called “mobile-first indexing,” after much preparation, and this trend has continued.

Google is a Cruel Mistress

Not only is my own user experience unsatisfactory, but the Google search experience is also bad and this can be a very serious problem. With Google’s latest updates this year (and there are several), the speed of web pages is becoming increasingly important. If you have a slow website, you’re in trouble. This technical issue can have a big impact on how Google ranks the site and Google ranks slow web pages lower in the search results. There are many things that matter in the ranking of Google (and other search engines) but the importance of speed is increasing, not least of all when it comes to smart devices. You can analyze your website’s speed using Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.

What slows down a website’s speed?

There are many things that affect the speed of a website. For example, the weight of images and third-party sales and booking tools can significantly reduce the speed of the site. We have come across and reported numerous such reasons on our clients’ websites lately, usually following updates from the search engines. It is very important to stay alert and monitor websites because as soon as they slow down it creates the risk of losing business. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly look for solutions to such problems, for the Google search engine and of course so that the user doesn’t give up and avoid the website.

But do not despair, Pipar\ENGINE offers a technical audit of websites carried out by experienced experts using various analytical tools.