Introduction (General outlook)

Technology has come so far over the years and still continues to advance and amaze, showing no signs of slowing. As we see a growth in technology, we also see a decline in patience.

It wasn’t too long ago that we could use the internet and the telephone at the same time, now we are using the internet on phones, complaining when a web page takes 10 seconds to load.

Speed has a massive impact in all our lives.

Importance to websites

Websites need to be fast. Not just fast, faster than their competition. Driving traffic to your website is a race similar to those pizza delivery promotion ‘delivered in 30 minutes or less or it’s free but with websites you are aiming for 3 seconds or less if not the chances of losing the customer increases exponentially.

You have brought a visitor to your website but the hard part is not over yet now you have got to make them stay. If your page load speed is too long, they won’t stick around to see what your site has to offer.

According to a study even with a site speed of 1-3 seconds there is still a 32% chance the user will exit the page before it even loads. This is known as a bounce rate or drop off rate.

• A 1-5 second site speed has a bounce rate of 90%. Just because a website is 2 seconds slower the chance of losing the visitor is 58% greater.
  
• 1-6 seconds has a probability of 106% and 1-10 seconds has a massive 123% potential bounce rate.
  
• Convincing user’s to not only stay on your pages but come back to your site again and again requires more than great content.
  

Affect on marketing and profits

A slow website is bad enough but a slow e-commerce website is damaging to your profits. If potential customers are leaving your site before they have a chance to see any of the amazing products you have to offer because they took too long to load then you are passing up a big opportunity and a massive amount of profits and you won’t just be losing one potential client. Likewise, if they see what you have to offer but it takes to long load the product page.

When it comes to site speed for e-commerce website it’s not just impatience that causes people to shop elsewhere but their impression of your websites. A slow site leaves a bad impression with your visitors and gives them doubts on how trusty worthy your site really is as a slow site feels less secure and if people don’t feel like their money and information is secure they will be more hesitant to spend it. Slow sites will give customers even longer to change their mind about buying a product especially if it’s an impulsive purchase preventing your from increasing your sales.

A slow site prevents you from making sales but can also lose you money directly. With PPC ads you pay per click so when a potential customers leaves your landing page before it has a chance to load you are still paying for that click. If you have many customers do the same you will end up paying for a lot of clicks with very little return. That’s why it’s crucial you optimise your landing pages before running your ads otherwise your just burning money.