Why Long Load Times Are a Website Killer

Are you having trouble getting traffic to your website? Maybe you’ve spent days working on SEO, but you’ve had no success improving your rankings. Perhaps you’ve even invested into paid ads, but you cannot get the visitors to stay. If this is the case, your site might be slow.

The average desktop website loads in 9.3 seconds. The recommended load time, however, is around 3 seconds—over three times shorter. That means most websites are too slow. These are not just random numbers. There is a good reason or recommending speed optimization.

Let’s start with search engines. Most website owners, especially new ones, don’t realize speed has a tremendous impact on search rankings.

Google has made it public knowledge in 2010 that speed was a ranking factor. We do not know precisely how much of an influence it has, but research shows the impact is nothing to scoff at.

If you look at the speed stats, you’ll notice that the average top-ranked website is usually 4-5 times faster than the average desktop site. If you’re looking for something more specific, though, some websites, climbed as much as 3 rankings by improving website speed.

And it doesn’t end there. Since 2018, speed has been a ranking factor for mobile websites. Considering that the average mobile site takes around 22 seconds to load fully, you can safely set improving mobile load times as the top priority for 2019.

However, speed’s impact on SEO is only a byproduct of something bigger. That’s users avoiding slow websites.

It might not seem like a big deal if your website takes 5 seconds to load, but it is. Visitors perceive load times as longer than they are. Therefore, even if you don’t notice it, your website might be too slow for most users.

Let us hit you with some quick stats that illustrate this:

• If a site takes over 3 seconds to load, 53% of users leave.

• 46% of visitors don’t return to a slow website.

• Each second of delay reduces page views by 11%.

If you want a well-visited site, you need to make it fast. It is essential you keep your load times under 3 seconds, or your site suffers.

If your goal is to earn money through your website, slow speeds are a hindrance. Each second of delay reduces conversions by 7%. In plain terms, even if your site loads in the average 9.3 seconds, you lose out on almost half of potential profit.

As you see, long load times are indeed a website killer. If you want a fast site, it’s vital to optimize its speed as thoroughly as possible.

To do this, acquaint yourself with speed optimization practices. Also, find a fast hosting provider. Fast hosting is a necessity if you want any speed implementation to take root.