What is Webpage Speed?

What is Webpage Speed?

The term page load speed (or webpage speed) refers to the speed at which a website or webpage loads in its entirety. This includes all content, including images, graphics, videos and text. It also includes the navigation menu, footer, CTA buttons, and navigation menu. The load time of pages varies depending on many factors, including the file size, platform on which they are hosted, how the webpage is coded and the number of widgets that are used.

The user experience is affected by how a website loads and the way users interact with it. If a page takes too much time to load, customers will abandon the site. People will browse a website longer if it displays the results they are looking for quickly.

Google and other search engines take page load times into account when displaying organic search results. The overall impact of webpage load times on a company’s bottom lines is significant. It is up to the eCommerce merchant whether or not this has a positive or detrimental effect. You can improve the speed of your website by taking matters into your hands or enlisting the help of an eCommerce development team.

SEO Page Load Time Impact

Let me quickly mention the fact that Google uses Mobile-First Indexing. Google analyzes a webpage’s relevance to a search phrase by using the mobile version of the content. What does this mean to eCommerce merchants who want to improve their organic SEO rankings?

Merchants who want to rank on Google’s first page should optimize for mobile devices as well as desktop. While Google doesn’t require merchants have a mobile version for each page, it is highly recommended to help improve your organic visibility.

You might be wondering what the role of webpage speed is in this. It was previously used by Google as a ranking factor for desktop searches. The search engine released an update in July 2018 that also included page load speed as an important ranking factor for mobile searches. Although this update has been in place for more than three years, it is still important for eCommerce merchants who don’t put a lot of effort into improving mobile user experience. Google even stated that the likelihood of a mobile site visitor abandoning your site increases 123% when page loading time is increased from 1 second to 10 seconds.

Google considers mobile site speed a ranking factor. Websites with quicker page loading times are almost always more popular than those with slower pages. Although there are many other dependencies that are based on the SEO strategies and competitors, site speed remains an important factor.

High search rankings are key to increasing reach, visibility, and traffic for an eCommerce website. This is why optimizing it for SEO is so important for a company’s bottom line. Zero Limit states that the top 5 organic results on the first page account for 67% of all clicks. The results in spots 6-10 only account for 4% of clicks. Visibility is a factor in how many people view a page, click it, and make a purchase. This ultimately impacts the bottom line.

How to Measure Website Speed

Google’s pageSpeed Insights tool is an invaluable tool to measure and report on a page’s performance both on desktop and mobile. It offers suggestions for improving each page and assigns a score to each page that summarises its simulated performance.

PageSpeed Insights also evaluates Core HTML Vitals. Each is classified as Good to Needs Improvement, or Poor. Here’s how the scoring works.

• A score of 90 or more is Good
• A score between 50 and 90 is Needs Improvement
• A score of less than 50 is Poor

You can find different site speed reports with different functions. The Page Timings report will provide a comprehensive analysis of each page’s performance. Speed Suggestions reports can be used to give specific tips and tricks on optimizing each page. Finally, the User Timings Report will give you an in-depth analysis on each resource’s performance such as the image or button. To ensure the best user experience, measure your webpage speed before launch.

How page load speeds affect UX

Nearly 70% of web users admit page speed affects their willingness to shop online. This is a surprise to you.

For a moment, imagine yourself as a consumer. Shopping online for the perfect item is easy. You can compare different brands and products. Which brand is the best? What makes them different? Different? Different?

It’s tempting to click on the link and read about it, but it doesn’t seem to be loading. It may take too long to load so you leave and go to another site. It doesn’t matter if the product you are looking for is available elsewhere. It’s a big deal for merchants if they lose potential customers or revenue due to slow webpage speeds. Once they have reached you, they leave your site because they don’t think it’s worth the effort. This has a significant impact on revenue.

A potential customer could find a comparable product elsewhere and have a negative experience with your site. This is regardless of whether they are a new customer or a loyal one. Slow page loading times can frustrate loyal customers who shop regularly.

This also impacts the way social media platforms display content to their users. Facebook made an update in 2017 to show more stories that load quickly on mobile devices and less stories that take longer to load. The platform still makes an effort to inform its users when a link is loading slower than they would like, based on their location and connection. Facebook is all about improving user experience!

Conclusion

This blog will help you understand the impact webpage speed has on a company’s bottom line and profitability. It can have a positive or negative impact on companies. However, it is up to the merchants to invest in custom web development to improve the user experience and increase revenue.

source https://www.groovecommerce.com/ecommerce-blog/webpage-speed/