If you have ever been on the internet (that’s a joke, of course you have, you’re here right now), you more than likely have run into a slow website a time or two. Or maybe you manage, run, or have created a website that is starting to run a bit slower than you would like. There could be dozens of reasons why your site is running so slow. In blogs to come, I will explain some things you can do to help your website work faster, but for now, let’s talk about why website speed is so important.
Audience Engagement
Obtaining and keeping someones attention in 2019 is almost impossible.. well digitally that is. We all have so many distractions pulling us in different directions it’s hard to stick on one thing. Whether it’s a new blog, a new report released, or just a new funny meme that was created, like that church kid holding all those chairs… that one cracks me up. See! I was already distracted. Anyways, maintaining your customer or potential customer’s attention is hard enough, so having a website that could take 5, 6, even 10 seconds to load, will drastically lower your chances of keeping them on that page, or even searching through the rest of your website. Multiple publications and research shows the average person’s attention span is between 6-9 seconds. So within that time, not only should your content be relevant, but you better make sure it loads fast enough for the customer’s liking.
SEO Rankings and Results
Let’s assume most people reading this use Google exclusively for their search engine needs. I mean, they provided 92% of all search results this past calendar year, so I have a pretty good shot at being right. Google’s algorithms and bots that help them score and rank websites all over the inter-webs focus on specific factors, that once again I will be discussing in a future blog, but one is site speed. Google’s metrics tend to favor websites that are designed and optimized in such a way that make them very fast. The sites that have poor load times, get docked reputation points by Google, making your SEO presence hindered when working to market to your audience.
Overall, your website’s speed is more important than ever in our digitally driven world. Customers want to see your specifics incredibly fast, and if they get what they want, Google tends to reward you with better SEO scoring. Now I’m not saying that website speed will immediately equate to a successful business or presence, but a fast website can definitely keep your brand at the forefront, and with great content, you have a recipe for success!
Do you feel you could use some help with your website’s speed, but don’t know exactly where to start? Check out Sharp Guys’ free Website Analysis today, and let us help.
