Cut Load Times, Boost Sales: Why Fast Sites Win

Guide To Fast Sites and Guide To Cutting Load Times

Why Fast Sites Win – When it comes to keeping users engaged on your site, every second counts. Studies reveal that for every second shaved off a page’s load time, conversion rates can increase dramatically. Conversely, a mere two-second delay can cause abandonment rates to skyrocket. In our fast pace world, with user expectations at an all-time high, website speed is a crucial component of your brand’s online success.

In this article, we’ll explore why faster loading websites win by breaking down the connection between site speed, user experience, Search Engine Optimisation / SEO and conversion rates. We’ll also share top SEO tools and best practices to keep your site ahead of the competition, ensuring your brand remains agile and prepared for anything.

Why Fast Sites Win

Why Site Speed Is More Important Than Ever

How many times have you been left frustrated with a website taking too long to load? Now, imagine that same frustration felt by users browsing your website for the first time. These days, users not only expect websites to load instantly but are also less tolerant of delays than ever before.

A Google study found that as page load time increases from one second to three seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 32%. This means even a slight lag can lead to significant drops in engagement and conversions.

For example, an eCommerce website with a one-second delay in page load time could lose potential buyers as users abandon their search out of irritation. On the other hand, fast sites provide a seamless, engaging experience, making visitors more likely to browse, engage with content and complete purchases.

Aside from delivering a flawless user experience, a fast website also offers the following benefits:

A Fater Loading Website With See Improved SEORankings

Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics introduced by Google, specifically measures page speed and user experience.

These are critical for SEO and focus on:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — Measures loading performance, ideally occurring within 2.5 seconds.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — Assesses responsiveness, with less than 200 milliseconds considered optimal.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — Evaluates visual stability, aiming for a score below 0.1.

Focusing on these metrics can significantly improve SEO rankings. By ensuring fast load times, you enhance user experience and signal to Google that your site is reliable and user-friendly.

Fast Sites Have Higher Conversions

Website speed is directly linked to revenue. Studies show that a 0.1-second improvement in load time can boost conversion rates by up to 8% for eCommerce sites and 10% for travel sites.

When pages load quickly, users are more likely to complete desired actions such as filling out forms, signing up for newsletters, or making purchases. In contrast, slow-loading sites erode trust and discourage transactions.

In today’s competitive digital marketplace, the difference between fast sites and a slow ones could be the difference between a sale and a lost customer.

The Competitive Advantage of Fast Sites

Fast sites provide more than just stronger sales and higher conversion rates. Today, users prefer to support brands they trust and enjoy engaging with. For businesses that prioritise faster load speeds, benefits include:

• Building customer loyalty — Fast websites create customer satisfaction, fostering trust and repeat visits. This builds loyalty and retention, crucial in a highly competitive landscape.
• Enhancing brand credibility — A fast website reflects professionalism and quality, positively impacting brand perception. Conversely, slow sites can harm your brand image and result in lost opportunities.
• Staying ahead of competitors — As more businesses invest in their digital presence, fast-loading websites become a crucial differentiator. A superior experience sets your business apart, enhancing your appeal and market share.

If You Want A Fast Site – Three Essential Tools to Analyse and Optimise Site Speed

To ensure your site is meeting user expectations, here are three indispensable tools to get started:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

This free tool from Google analyses your site’s performance, highlighting areas for improvement. It provides targeted recommendations for mobile and desktop performance, making it invaluable for improving Core Web Vitals scores.

2. GTMetrix and Pingdom

Both tools offer insights into load times, page sizes, and individual elements that may be slowing your site down. They provide a detailed breakdown of areas to optimise, helping you streamline performance.

3. WebPageTest and Lighthouse

For advanced insights, these tools examine elements such as Time to First Byte (TTFB) and render-blocking resources. WebPageTest also simulates real-world performance across global locations.

Don’t Overlook the Importance of Mobile Optimisation

More and more, mobile devices will dominate internet traffic, making mobile website optimisation essential. Mobile users are often on the go, with less patience for delays. Research shows that 53% of mobile users abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Optimising for mobile requires more than just responsive design. You need to look at on-page optimisation techniques such as minimising redirects, compressing images, and enabling lazy loading can ensure fast load times even on slower networks.

A seamless mobile experience builds trust, boosts engagement, and increases conversions, making it a cornerstone of digital success.

Five best practices for page speed optimisation and getting fast loading sites

If you’re ready to improve your site’s speed, start with these five best practices:

• Minimise HTTP Requests: Consolidate resources like CSS and JavaScript files, and reduce image files where possible. This helps streamline load times significantly.
• Optimise Images and Videos: Use WebP format for images and compress video files to balance quality with performance.
• Leverage Browser Caching: Store static files on users’ devices for faster load times on repeat visits.
• Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Serve content from servers closest to your users for faster delivery.
• Use Lazy Loading: Delay loading non-critical resources, such as images below the fold, to save bandwidth and improve initial load times.

A Guide To help Speed Up Your Site and Optimising Your Website Load Time

When it comes to a high-performing website, there’s a real need for speed. You’re pouring conversions and revenue down the drain if you have slow page speed. We’ve collated the best tried-and-tested tips for page speed optimisation, sometimes called website speed optimisation, to boost your search engine ranking and improve your user experience.

So, just why is page speed so important? The reason is simple: the slower your website, the more potential customers you’re turning away. Speed is one of the core SEO Metrics you need to succeed.

Why all this focus on fast sites?

Website speed and load time are crucial for a variety of reasons, especially when it comes to improving user experience and improving search engine rankings.

Here’s why site speed is so important for your website:

Fast Sites Impact on User Experience

The user experience (UX) is directly affected by how quickly your website loads. If your site is slow to load, visitors are likely to leave before it even finishes loading.

Here’s why it matters:

• Higher Bounce Rates: Studies show that most users expect a website to load in under 3 seconds. If your site takes longer, visitors are more likely to bounce off, increasing your bounce rate.
• Customer Satisfaction: Slow websites create frustration. A fast site, on the other hand, provides a smoother and more enjoyable experience, encouraging users to stay longer and engage with your content.

Site Speed Has Direct Impact on Conversions

Website speed affects how easily users can complete actions like signing up, making a purchase, or filling out a contact form. In eCommerce, even a few seconds delay can significantly impact conversion rates.

For example:

• Cart Abandonment: If an eCommerce site is slow, users may abandon their shopping cart, leading to lost sales.
• Lead Generation: Slower websites result in fewer leads. If your lead forms take too long to load, visitors are less likely to complete them.

Speed, SEO and Google Rankings

Google has made it clear that site speed is a ranking factor. The faster your website loads, the better it is for your SEO efforts.

Here’s why:

• Fast Sites Rank Higher: Google rewards websites that load quickly, meaning site speed contributes to your overall search engine ranking.
• Mobile-First Indexing: With mobile-first indexing, Google prioritises the mobile version of your website for ranking. Since mobile connections are often slower, Google takes site speed into account when ranking websites for mobile searches.

Fast Sites Impact on Mobile Users

The majority of users now access websites via their smartphones. With slower mobile internet speeds compared to desktop, having fast sites and fast-loading mobile websites is even more critical.

• Mobile Experience: Google considers mobile site speed as a ranking factor. If your mobile site loads slowly, you risk not appearing in search results or frustrating users.
• User Expectations: Mobile users expect instant results. If your site is slow on mobile devices, your visitors may leave and look for faster alternatives.

Reduces Operating Costs

A website that loads slowly often means you’re using more server resources, which can increase your hosting costs.

Optimising your site speed can result in:

• Lower Bandwidth Usage: Faster sites tend to use less bandwidth, which reduces the load on your hosting server and lowers your costs.
• Better Resource Utilisation: By optimising your website’s performance, you ensure that server resources are used more efficiently, leading to cost savings.

Enhanced Customer Trust and Brand Image

A fast-loading website contributes to the perception of professionalism and trustworthiness.

Slow websites can lead to:

• Loss of Trust: If users experience delays, they may feel your business is unprofessional or outdated.
• Negative Brand Perception: A slow website reflects poorly on your brand and can tarnish the user’s perception of your business.

Fast Sites Offer Competitive Advantage

In a competitive digital landscape, every second counts. If your competitors’ websites load faster than yours, they’ll likely capture more traffic, engagement, and conversions.

A fast website gives you an edge:

• Stand Out in the Market: A smooth, fast experience will set you apart from competitors whose sites are slower, making it more likely that users will choose your business over theirs.
• Better User Retention: Visitors are more likely to return to your website if it’s fast and easy to use.

Long-Term Performance Gains

Website speed is an ongoing factor for success. By regularly optimising your website’s speed, you maintain good performance and continually meet user expectations.

Over time, you’ll see:

• Sustained Traffic Growth: Faster websites tend to keep visitors engaged longer, leading to more time spent on-site and repeat visits.
• Stronger SEO Rankings: As Google continuously updates its algorithms, site speed will remain an important ranking factor, ensuring your website stays competitive.

Website speed is vital for the overall success of your business. From improving user experience and increasing conversions to boosting SEO rankings and gaining a competitive edge, fast-loading websites provide both immediate and long-term benefits. By prioritising website speed optimisation, you ensure that users have a seamless experience, search engines rank your site favourably, and your business sees improved performance across the board.

For Australian businesses looking to improve their digital presence, making site speed a priority is key to success in today’s fast-paced online environment.

What is good page speed?

If you want a quick answer, Google’s recommended page speed is under two seconds: “Two seconds is the threshold for eCommerce website acceptability. At Google, we aim for under a half-second.” Faster is better, especially when it comes to user experience.

In fact, if it takes more than 3 seconds for a page to load, over half of visitors will leave it.

Think about that for a moment.

How does slow page speed affect user experience?

The time it takes your pages to load has a direct impact on user experience.

For every second of frustration your page load times cause visitors, you’re pouring conversions and revenue down the drain.

A loading time longer than 4 seconds and you’re saying goodbye to 90% of your audience.

Image Source: Google

Why are fast sites and page speed important for search engine optimisation?

People often ask: is page speed a ranking factor? The answer is simple: yes.

Page speed is one of the key ranking factors for search engines. Search engines are all about providing the best user experience possible. So, as any good SEO agency will attest, you can actually damage your page rankings with a slow website.

Case in point, Google announced last year that page speed will have a more prominent effect on mobile search rankings.

So if you want your site to appear in Google search results, make them lightning fast with page speed optimisation tactics.

And there’s more…

If you’re investing in online advertising, think of all the ad budget you’re wasting by sending people to your website for only a handful to stick around. All because your web pages take too long to load. And, don’t even get us started on your mobile user experience.

We could go on and on with more statistics to prove the importance of site speed. But let’s skip to the stuff you really want to know.

How to optimise your website for page speed

We’ve compiled all the best tried-and-tested page speed optimisation tips and tricks to boost your ranking in search engines and improve your user experience.

1. Conduct an audit of your page speed

Begin by auditing your website speed on both desktop and your mobile site. Website speed testing gives you a benchmark to use a base when conducting page speed optimisation. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a quick and easy tool to benchmark your current page speed and find out what you need to optimise on your own site to decrease your page load time.

Website owners simply need to enter the URL of their website into the search bar to start. Google provides every page with a speed score between zero and 100 for both desktop and mobile.

For instance, we tested the Sydney Morning Herald home page and it scored 20:

So, you can see for yourself, they’ve got some work to do in terms of site speed.

But that’s why we love Google’s PageSpeed Insights. The test tool doesn’t only score your page; it also provides a report which identifies quick ways to decrease your load time on desktop and mobile. It is performance monitoring at its best, so you can identify the page speed issues and resolve them quickly.

The report even tells you how many seconds you could gain making the changes.

Here’s what it suggested for the Sydney Morning Herald:

2. Reduce and compress image sizes

If you focus on only one thing to sort out your site speed, make it your images.

Images are the biggest culprit when it comes to page speed. They can actually account for up to 75% of your page’s weight.

There’s one thing you should always do: compress existing images.

One way to shrink an image file size is by compressing it. There are lots of compression tools out there that make this easy, like Compressor.io:

Simply drag and drop, or upload, your image to reduce the size by as much as 90%!

For WordPress and Magento eCommerce websites, Kraken is a plugin that automatically optimises all new image uploads.

Another great compressor tool is Jpegmini.com. You can even add this tool to your web app to optimise images before they upload, so you can reduce your page speeds right off the bat.

But, if you’re looking for some free tools to compress and resize your images you can use one of the following:

• JPEG Optimizer
• Optimizilla
• Optimole
• CompressNow

That takes care of your second task, which is to optimise images you upload to your site.

Pro Tip: When uploading images, make sure the image dimensions are never greater than the container size. In other words, if the container has a maximum width of 400 pixels, don’t upload an image that’s 800 pixels wide.

If you really want to offer a high res image for people to share and download, you can hyperlink the smaller image to a higher resolution version.

That way, you’re giving people what they want without weighing down your page. Some platforms, like HubSpot, feature automatic image resizing and compression.

3. Eliminate unnecessary images

The easiest way to slim down your page weight and help your site to load quickly is to get rid of any unnecessary images.

Go through your site, do an image audit and get rid of what you don’t need.

4. Trim down your custom fonts

Everyone loves custom fonts. They add lots of personality to your website and help you stand out.

But at what cost?

Custom fonts can carry add weight to your pages, which slows down website performance.

How?

Because if the user doesn’t have the custom font installed on their operating system, they have to download the font files.

Take Twitter for example: it uses Gotham in three different weights: light, book and medium. They weigh in at 154KB.

That’s 154KB on top of everything else on the site. Take a good look at the number of custom fonts on your site and see which ones you can afford to lose.

5. Minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript files

We know what you’re thinking:

What exactly is minifying? 

Over to the Google Developers:

“Minification refers to the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data without affecting how the resource is processed by the browser – e.g. code comments and formatting, removing unused code, using shorter variable and function names, and so on.”

Your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files are extremely important, as they determine your site’s appearance. But, they also add to the requests your site makes every time a user visits. That’s where minification comes in.

Minifying and combining your files helps you reduce this number of requests by reducing the size of each file and the total number of files.

The result?

You shave valuable time off your site’s page load speed.

We recommend you hand this one over to your web developer. But if you’re keen to have a go, here are some tools you can use:

• Closure Compiler, from Google Developers, enables you to minify your Javascript, as well as other helpful website speed optimisations. You can choose how you want the code to be optimised, such as optimising only for whitespace. It also checks your code for errors.
• Cssminifier.com and csscompressor.net are easy to use CSS minifiers. You just paste in your code and click the Minify or Compress button. You can also download the minified output as a css file.

• jscompress.comand javascript-minifier.com are easy JavaScript compression tools.

Another tactic you can implement is enabling GZIP compression. GZIP finds similar code and strings, and temporarily replaces them with shorter characters. The browser then decompresses gzipped files to bring them back to their original form. GZIP is especially effective on WordPress.

A word of caution: GZIP won’t work on images because they have already been compressed.

Not sure if your site’s GZIP is enabled? Go to a free tooland check for yourself. Here’s what you want to see:

6. Use asynchronous loading for Javascript and CSS

Now you’ve minified and combined your files, go a step further and optimise the way they load on your pages.

CSS and JavaScript can be loaded in two ways:

• Synchronously: your scripts load one at a time in the order they appear, starting with the <head> tag.
• Asynchronously: some of the scripts will load simultaneously, which means faster page speed.

For WordPress sites, you can use a plugin, such as WP Rocket, and check the box next to Render-blocking CSS/JS:

Image Source: Crazyegg

For other platforms, we advise that you ask a trusted web developer for help.

7. Invest in a CDN

Do you have a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

According to Cloudfare,  a content delivery network refers to “a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.”

So, if all your website’s assets, such as HTML pages, files, images and videos, are stored on servers in Sydney, that’s great for Australians who want to access your site.

But visitors in London have to deal with slower load times because your server is all the way across the world.

A CDN makes this faster by copying and storing your site elements in strategic locations around the world.

Image Source: Wordstream

It then caches the site’s contents and redirects the user’s request from the initial site’s server to their closest CDN. From there, it delivers the cached content.

The good news is major platforms, such as BigCommerce, Shopify and HubSpot, are already equipped with CDNs.

8. Reduce the amount of redirects

Every redirect adds precious seconds to your page speed.

For instance:

website.com → www.website.com → https//www.website.com

The most common redirects are 301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary). Both are server-side redirects that use HTTP to explain that a page or file has moved, which also increases the server response time.

So, the web server is using HTTP to redirect the browser to the new file or page location.

How to fix:

• Eliminating 301 redirects unless they are absolutely necessary to the user experience
• Avoiding redirects in resources that are required for your Critical Rendering Path
• Re-designing and redeveloping your website to use Responsive Design, rather than using redirects to divert mobile users to your mobile site

9. Cull your apps

Are you running numerous apps or plugins on your site? If so, this could be resulting in a lower page speed.

Some apps you definitely need. But, there could be a few that you installed and forgot about. You might even find your site uses 10 different plugins for social media integration.

Do an app audit and de-install anything you’re no longer using. But, be careful not to lose apps and plugins that are actually enhancing your site performance and user experience.

10. Use browser caching

Whenever someone visits your website, it downloads assets, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, images and stylesheets into their browser’s local cache.

That way it doesn’t have to retrieve all the assets with every page load, which improves the page speed.

One way to improve browser caching is with Expires Headers.

The idea behind Expires Headers is to reduce the number of HTTP requests for the server. They tell the browser whether it should request a specific file from the server or grab it from the browser’s cache.

Use a tool like Yslow to see if you have an expiration date set for your cache. Then set your Expires Headers for however long you want the information to be cached.

Optimise your website speed for the mobile devices

Google’s mobile-first index has made it all the more important to have a mobile-responsive, mobile-friendly website.

Similar to Google PageSpeed Insights, you can test your website’s mobile-friendliness using their free tool, the Google Mobile Friendly Test. All you need to do is provide your website URL and Google will scan the page to determine whether your page is suitable for mobile devices or not.

How to speed up your mobile site

There are a number of tactics to focus on in order to be ready for the mobile-first index. When it comes to driving more traffic, conversions and improving user experience (UX), we recommend starting with your page speed, focusing on mobile pages.

There are four ways you can speed up your mobile pages:

AMP Pages

Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) are a stripped down HTML copies of existing webpage content that offer faster load times than standard HTML templates. Google also caches your content within their own cache to speed up load time even more. All this results in a much faster, sleeker user experience and should, in turn, lead to improved visibility in the search results.

Websites can serve AMP pages by implementing the rel=amphtml tag into their HTML. Pages with AMP code contain a three-step AMP configuration.

Image Source: Tulsa Marketing Online

PWA

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are an alternative to moving to AMP. Their main selling points include:

• Reliable – loads instantly
• Fast – responds quickly to user interactions
• Engaging – feels like a natural app on a device with an immersive UX

Over to you

Ignoring your page speed is one of the biggest SEO mistakes you can make. Fast page speed is a key ranking factor for Google, as slow websites provide a poor user experience.

But there’s another major reason you should pay attention to speed: People really hate slow websites.

The slower your site, the less likely visitors will stick around long enough to progress to the next stage of your marketing funnel.

That means higher bounce rates, low user engagement, less time on site and less repeat traffic, and ultimately, a lower conversion rate.

The solution is simple: use these proven website speed and web-page optimisation tactics to speed up your desktop and mobile site as part of your SEO strategy.

We’ve talked a lot about user experience in this article and that’s because it’s absolutely imperative to the online success and growth of your business. It’s so important that we’ve created a free guide to help you nail your UX and create a big impact.

Do not hesitate to reach out to Australia’s Leading Digital Marketing Agency and the Top Australian SEO Services Agency for Proven Search Results if you have questions or need assistance.

Take Action with Online Marketing Gurus

Whether you’re looking to improve SEO rankings, reduce bounce rates, or optimise and boost online store sales, Online Marketing Gurus can help you unlock the potential of a high-speed website.

As Australia’s leading online digital marketing agency, we work with over 1,000 businesses across industries. With a team of 200+ passionate SEO agency specialists, we craft tailored strategies aligned with your goals.

Contact us today for a free and comprehensive website audit or consultation. Let’s ensure your website is not only fast but future-proof.

About the Author

Danny Andrawes

Danny Andrawes, Chief Executive Officer of OMG, plays a pivotal role in shaping the agency's strategic direction. With nearly 20 years of experience, he progressed from Content Specialist and Digital SEO Specialist to CEO, leveraging his impressive background in SEO/SEM delivery, client acquisition and retention, and change management to enhance OMG's service offerings. Danny’s leadership emphasises client partnerships and the integration of cutting-edge tools to optimise digital campaigns, positioning OMG as a trusted partner for businesses worldwide.