How page speed affects web traffic

Slow pages, slow sales

When a page, or entire website, is slow then there is a noticeable drop-off from customers – especially when that visitor has come from a keyword search as they’re invariably after immediate answers. So, in essence, slow pages mean less sales.

However, the customers who are already engaged with the brand are willing to sit tight and wait for the page and are therefore more likely to make their way through the entire sales funnel.

Increasing page speed can boost rankings

The easiest way to increase page speed is to re-evaluate the multimedia content on the site. Images and videos take the longest time to load and can slow down an efficient site considerably. There’s a catch-22 here in that sites with engaging content are seen by search engines, and customers, as interesting and useful – but too much content can damage any good work videos and photos provide.

By running a page speed test using Google’s PageSpeed Insights businesses can assess weaknesses and address them individually, which should increase traffic and sales thereafter.

In terms of traffic, this is reflected in bounce rates and the likelihood of them browsing other parts of the site. Search engines are also increasingly penalising websites which are slow to load, so not only do relevant sites make their way to the top, fast websites do too.

Designing for multiple use cases

Over the last decade at Creditplus, we’ve noticed that far more visitors are coming from mobile and that they’re on-the-go when they first experience our brand.

Having a fast page speed for mobile customers is incredibly important as most will be using data networks which are already slower than their broadband counterparts and unreliable. Having said that, we’ve seen a staggering uptake in visitors completing forms and making purchasing decisions on mobile and this trend is only set to continue.