The speed of your website matters. It impacts engagement, revenue, and the user experience. More than half of your site’s visits will leave your page (and sometimes never return) because of poor website page speeds.
How much revenue loss does that equate to? That depends on several factors, but the short answer is “a lot.”
In August 2021, Google rolled out the Page Experience Update in their latest ranking algorithm. This update ranks your page based on user experience with page load times (or web page speeds).
People expect information to be available quickly, especially when using a mobile device. Slow web pages are frustrating for everyone, and it impacts your revenue flow.
6 Reasons Your Website Page Speed Affects Engagement and Revenue
Page load time refers to the time it takes for the contents of your website to completely load. This includes text, imagery, and graphics. You waste marketing efforts to attract new customers because visits will promptly leave a slow web page.
That is not the only way you lose when your website is slow. Here are some reasons your website page speed affects customer engagement and revenue.
1. Conversions, retention, and sales
If your website takes longer than three seconds to load, you can expect to lose more than half of your site’s visitors. Your site should not only load in under three seconds, but the web page size should be less than 500KB.
Customers don’t want to wait around for a site that runs slowly. Even if they muddle through the process and buy something, they are less likely to return to purchase a second time.
Customers spend longer on a site and buy more in one purchase when the page load time is low. When you increase page speed, you improve sales and revenue.
2. Bounce rate
When a customer visits a site and leaves after viewing only one web page, it impacts your bounce rate. The bounce rate is another metric Google uses when ranking a site. You can determine what your bounce rate is by reviewing your Google Analytics.
A “good” bounce rate is between 25% to 40%. That means roughly one in four website visitors bounce without clicking a link or visiting multiple web pages on your site. A high bounce rate means that your engagement is extremely poor.
3. SEO rankings
When people don’t engage with your site, Google bots will overlook your site, too, keeping your website from gaining the necessary ranking. More importantly, it adversely affects your SEO ranking.
Search engine optimization (known as SEO) is a marketing strategy brands use to improve their ranking. Google has specific criteria sites must meet to gain rank.
There are about 200 search ranking factors that impact your site’s SEO. Site engagement and page load time are two significant factors used to determine your SEO ranking.
4. Mobile users
People conduct most of their website browsing from a mobile device. That’s why your site must be optimized for mobile searches.
HTML5 is the latest (and final) version of the HTML computing language code. It optimizes the mobile user experience so that videos, imagery, and files load quickly and in the proper format for a mobile device.
Poorly coded mobile websites will cause users to leave your site. That costs your brand conversions, click-throughs, sales, and revenue.
5. Reputation
Slow page speeds create dissatisfied customers. Not only is it a detriment to your sales, but it also tends to lead to negative reviews. Google monitors these issues and penalizes a page’s ranking when someone leaves unfavorable feedback.
Customers conclude that if your website is slow, your customer service and support are probably equally as bad. If you sell products on your website, customers will think those are inferior too. It’s all-around bad for business.
6. Marketing
Your slow website adversely impacts branding partners if you have affiliate links or sponsored advertisements. Their ads don’t load quickly, and people won’t click on them. That hurts the reciprocal nature of your partnership with other brands and, ultimately, your revenue flow.
Smart Ways to Improve Your Website’s Page Speed
Losing revenue due to your website’s page speed can feel like something you cannot control, but there are solutions. A few ways to speed up your website involve:
- Invest in efficient data solutions
- Complete website audits
- Modify files and images as needed (for quicker loading)
- Prioritize the mobile experience
Another solution for increasing page load speed while maximizing content real estate is to work with a content marketing partner. Revcontent’s marketing platform has lighter widgets for less page latency. That leads to more money from your current revenue partners.
At RevContent, we help publishers like you meet and exceed your revenue goals by providing you with a native advertising solution. Our personalized customer advocacy empowers publishers to hit revenue targets without sacrificing the user experience.
Get faster page loads and hit revenue goals with ease. Connect with us for more information.
