A Fast Website is Like a 5-Star Review
Think about this: the fastest route between marketing and customer purchase is the friend recommendation. People trust their friends – that’s why they’re friends, after all – and when a friend recommends a product or service, it often leads to a sale. Some of your customers might not have even seen any of your ads. But if a trusted source recommends your business, people listen.
As far as websites are concerned, the number one most trusted source for advice is an invisible robot, which is responsible for the results you get on a search page. This robot, also known as a spider, crawls a site and indexes the information found there. It’s this indexed information that helps, in part, to determine your position on a search results page.
You Want Google to Love Your Website
How does that work? Well, when Google crawls a site, it’s like those shopping sprees you see on TV. People have 5 minutes to fill their cart and they run like maniacs, spilling Dolly Madisons and smashing the bread all over the place. Google might only have 5 seconds to see what is on your site before they move on to the rest of the internet. If your page takes 8 seconds to load, Google only indexes part of your homepage. That’s not counting the deeper pages, like your contact info, product info, or your blog.
Nearly 70% of people do a Google search for a product before they buy it. What they find on that search will affect where and what they purchase. If your website doesn’t show up in their search results because it’s not indexed, will you make that sale?
Why Website Speed Matters
What comes up on a search results page is the primary reason page speed matters. The web is huge, and there is no telling how often Google’s robot will crawl your site. You want them to get as much as they can the first time around. Once they do crawl your site, if you give them plenty of good content to work with, they’ll use it. Showing up in a results page is like getting a recommendation from a friend. You want Google to talk about you on their Search Engine Results page, because that is what people trust.
Another reason that page speed matters is what can only be termed as impatience. Marketers used to deal with grabbing viewers attention in the first seconds of a commercial, or on billboards that were easy to read at 70mph. As consumers, we’re conditioned to getting something within the first few seconds of a marketing message. Online, a user begins judging what they find within the first few seconds of clicking a link. Nearly half of users will abandon a web page that takes more than two to three seconds to load. Where do they go? Often, to your competitors.
How can I check my website speed?
There are lots of sites out there that can check how quickly your web page loads. Google offers one that checks your website speed on both desktop and mobile, which will give you a good idea how well your site performs. If the results aren’t what you’d like to see, Lieberman Technologies can help design a high-performance website that is fast. We can take an in-depth look at your site and provide a number of services that will improve not only site speed but all-around user experience. Want to know more? Give us a call!