How To Improve Your Website Speed And Boost SEO
What do you do when you encounter a website that takes forever to load?
Chances are, you probably wait a few seconds and then navigate away, right?
That slow loading website disappears from your mind as you move on to one that gives you the info you need quickly and efficiently.
So, what if your website is the slow loading one? How many customers might you be losing without realising it?
The number one improvement you can make to your website is to optimise its loading speed. The average internet user just doesn’t have the patience to wait for slow page load times when they’re searching for the product or service they need. People get frustrated – and soon look elsewhere.
How can you fix it?
Read on for our top tips to improve your website speed, optimise your search engine rankings, and increase conversions.
How To Improve Your Website Speed And Boost SEO
What Is SEO – And Why Does Speed Matter?
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the process of improving the ranking of your website in search engine results. The higher your website ranks, the more visitors can find you, visit your site, and get in touch with you or make purchases.
Slow loading speeds don’t just lead to a poor user experience. They can also negatively impact this search ranking. According to research, a website loading time of between 1 and 3 seconds is considered average, with more than half of all users already beginning to abandon pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load.
So, if your pages are taking longer than a couple of seconds to load, you could be losing customers.
All the SEO in the world won’t save your website if it is slow!
Tip: Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool can analyse what’s slowing your website down – and give you tips for how you can improve your speed.
What Are Conversions? And How Can I Get More Of Them?
A conversion occurs when a visitor to your website does something that you want them to do – such as taking a specific action, buying your product or requesting your service.
Increasing your conversions is known as Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). This is the process of improving your website to increase business activity such as signups, purchases, or customers making contact with you. CRO goes hand-in-hand with SEO.
So, conversions are good for business. But, how do they relate to website speed?
The fact of the matter is, if your website is too slow, it won’t rank highly, visitors won’t find it, and if they don’t find it, they can’t buy from you. Basically, you are reducing your chances of getting conversions.
If your website is slow, people will either give up before anything loads, get frustrated with their user experience and navigate away before taking the required action, or they might not even find your site at all with your reduced SEO. Conversions rely on good website speed, so optimising your site for speed AND conversions will help your sales.
Tip: Help turn visitors into customers by adding explicit “call to action” text or buttons encouraging them to contact you, sign up, or purchase.
Try These Quick Tips For Improving Your Website Speed
Right, we know that website speed is vital for SEO, user experience and conversions. So, how do you improve a slow loading website? Some websites will need a complete overhaul to run quicker, but there are some quick fixes you can do to improve things.
Here are our top tips to improve website speed:
- Reduce image size – use photo editing tools to get the smallest file size possible, without compromising on clarity.
- Delete unnecessary stuff – anything that you don’t use must go! Delete old content, broken links, and any unused apps, plugins or other software.
- Make you have upgraded to Shopify Online Store 2.0 for a faster running Shopify site.
Creative Web Designs Can Help You Speed Up – And Sell More
The best way to get a fast and efficient website is to let an expert look at it.
So if you’re looking for support to create a fast, conversion-focused eCommerce website – or to rework your existing website for better performance – get in touch with Creative Web Designs.
We’re experts on optimising eCommerce websites to get greater conversion rates for our clients – and increase their business success.
Book a time to chat with our team now.