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Make Your Site Faster or Lose Your Audience
by Meredith Stack in Media on Dec 03, 2009
According to ComScore, Cyber Monday online sales were up 5% versus a year ago. Considering the fact that Black Friday sales weren’t quite as high as projected, this is encouraging news.
People are not only going online to buy, they are going online to research before they shop in-store. You see where this is going; the Internet is becoming an increasingly vital component of consumer spending.
The path for this shift has been paved by the fact that the web is more accessible than it use to be. Cyber Monday originally came about because most Americans didn’t have high speed Internet at home; so they would shop once they returned to work. Now most Americans have access to high speed Internet anywhere and they are increasingly web savvy.
Expectations for the speed and usability of the web are increasing. Consumers’ patience is less. They want the content that they requested immediately.
Google wants to accommodate the consumers’ desire for immediacy. They have set the bar high. They want browsing the web to be as fast as turning the pages of a magazine.
It’s not a surprise that Google is taking this stance.Their paid search quality scores have taken into account landing page speed for some time. And in 2010 it is expected that website speed will effect your website’s organic rankings.
So take note! A faster site equals a better consumer experience, which leads to lower bounce rates, higher conversion rates, better organic optimization and a higher likelihood that your paid ad will appear above your competitor. Time is money.
To illustrate an example, let me tell you about my Cyber Monday experience. A popular women’s clothing retailer had a wonderful deal, 50% off of EVERYTHING. When I saw the email promoting this offer, I couldn’t click fast enough. My initial adrenaline rush was kyboshed when the product pages took sooo long to load. I entered the site with the intention of purchasing gifts for 4 different people and myself! By the time I did a little perusing and got one item in my shopping cart, I almost threw in the towel. But then visions of 50% off savings came back into my head. I persevered; but I could only last so long. I ended up purchasing 2 items. Had I had more patience, I likely would have purchased 6 or more items. So even 50% savings wasn’t enough for me to overlook the poor user experience.
If you want to learn more, Google has created a vast array of resources to help designers and developers make the web faster. Check Google out; you will find articles, video tutorials and discussion boards. Yahoo also has tool that analyzes web pages and suggests way to improve their performance.
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It is so true, if you site doesn’t load fast enough, users will go on the next site.