“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late”; The importance of speed optimization for SEO and lead generation can be summarized in this one quote from Shakespeare. Every day, millions of potential clients and customers are knocking at your website’s door. Underestimating the impact of your website’s speed means losing clients each second it takes your website to load.
Each day, the modern digital world is improving itself to provide a better user experience (UX). And our websites are no exception to this. To stay relevant in the online world, attract the right audience to your platform, and increase your search engine visibility, you have to prioritize speed optimization.
There are several factors, tips, and tricks to achieve this goal, which we want to discuss in this blog. Whether you intend to use this information to boost your website performance, or you are still not convinced that speed optimization is crucial, we suggest you stay with us and follow this topic.
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The Significance of Speed Optimization for SEO
As we have mentioned before, user experience is a key factor for success in the digital world. It is a top priority for any search engine to deliver results that do not put off users. Attention spans are getting shorter, so the algorithm doesn’t wait for you to take your time and load at your own pace!
Many believe that the relevance of the topic is the key to SEO and being at the top of the algorithm, and that is right. However, what is the chance that the user is specifically looking for your website? Relevance can only get you so far if there are multiple open tabs and yours is the last to load.
Every search engine out there emphasizes the importance of speed optimization for SEO and lead generation, and in response, any worthy SEO company has speed optimization at the top of their checklist.
In a nutshell, SEO depends on lots of different factors to work, but what makes website performance test so necessary in the process is that almost every other factor also depends on the speed of your website. Who cares if the service is good if you have to wait an hour to get it?
How Speed Optimization Boosts Lead Generation
Simply put, lead generation is the art of attracting potential customers and turning them into paying ones. Every search engine is developed by a company, and where there is a company, there is competition.
First impressions are always important. Your website has about 5 seconds to make a good one. This is why applying techniques for speed improvement is one of the top priorities for any SEO company.
There wouldn’t be so many tools for speed measurement and site speed tests online to check website speed if it weren’t a huge factor in user satisfaction. A simple search of the term ‘website speed’ in Google Blog results in more than 1500 results! This just shows how important website optimization is for your website.
There are also case studies from major companies showing the difference speed makes in conversion rate.
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Walmart stated that decreasing a single second in the loading time of their website resulted in a 2% conversion rate.
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Amazon's former engineer Greg Linden says that every 100 milliseconds that it takes the website to load, it costs 1% of sales.
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According to Yelp, an increase in website performance, raised their conversion rate by 15%.
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There is an article by eBay about how simple monitoring and maintenance of website performance and decreasing load time by 12% ended in a 0.5% boost to add to carts.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of cases such as these online from small to large businesses that have understood the importance of speed optimization for SEO and lead generation.
Impact of Website Loading Speed on User Experience
Let’s say every shop on your block starts its business at 9 am, and yours is the one that opens its doors at 10. How many potential customers have you lost in that single hour? Whatever the answer may be, it is only a fraction of what you will lose in a place as large as the online world.
Now imagine a shopping district as big as literally the entire world, where millions of people look for items and services every day, and losing a single second means lots of damage to your business.
In the same way, you don’t want slow service at a café; your clients also hate waiting for your website to load. Every single good could mean a new one right at your door. Google shares a few statistics about the relationship between website loading speed and bounce rate.
Our article on Why Google and Yelp Reviews Matter for Improved Lead Generation can give you more information on this matter.
Bounce rate statistics
In just 1 – 3 seconds of loading time, the website’s bounce rate increases to around 32%. After 5 seconds, 90% of visitors leave your website. This amount increases to 106% at 6 seconds and 123% around the 10-second mark.
Every SEO company out there focuses on hitting that 1-second mark or even less, since there is a huge difference between the loading time of 3- and 5-second bounce rates. This is exactly why many online business owners consider using SEO services.
Factors Affecting Website Speed and Performance
When we talk about different factors affecting speed, it is very important to mention that both sides, the website and the user, play a role in affecting website performance. However, one of those reasons is beyond our reach to fix; therefore, try to focus on your website and what makes it so long to load.
Some common reasons could be:
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Useless Code: It happens many times that we see code in visual animations and widgets that is just not necessary and is only there to increase loading time.
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Bad Coding: Sometimes the code is necessary; however, the way it is used can be highly optimized to offer better website performance.
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Be Aware of The Performance Cost: You want everything on your website to load, and everything has a loading time, so add content worth showing.
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Remove and Add: Set reminders for yourself to check if a code is still needed. When we add to the code, ideally, we want to get rid of those that don’t offer any value anymore.
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Work with Agencies: Professionals in this field can optimize your code in the most efficient way possible and know all techniques for speed improvement.
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Image Size: Think about the third tip we mentioned here, and don’t overuse images on your website. Where possible, try to reduce their size and compress them.
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HTTP Requests: To load the content of your website, HTTP has to send requests to the server and retrieve the content; each request equals loading time, and that’s why it’s best to reduce their number.
There are also some other factors affecting speed that you need to keep in mind when you are developing your website. Let’s look at two main devices that people use to access the World Wide Web.
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Desktop: Usually, because of faster internet speed, it gives you an equally faster result time. But it’s not the most common device used.
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Cell phones (or any other hand-held devices): The majority of developers go for mobile-first design for a reason. It can be a real pain to develop everything for the optimal condition first and then think about the limitations. SEO is the same in this aspect. The majority of us use cell phones to search on Google, and not all of us have 5G speed.
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Best Practices for Speed Optimization
A lot of the points mentioned in the previous topic have self-explanatory solutions. For example, too many HTTP requests can be easily solved by using browser caching. Doing this significantly increases website performance since all the information is readily available and there is no need to send requests to the server.
There are, however, a few tips and tricks to reduce the number of factors affecting speed on your website that you might not have thought of.
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Hosting: No amount of code, tricks, and tweaks can save you from a slow server; a minimum response time of 200ms and good reliability are a must for any server.
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Cyber Security: Cyber attacks can greatly affect website performance, which is why you should consult a web security provider to block malicious data without affecting performance.
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Image Optimization: Reducing the resolution and the size of images can have an unbelievable effect on website loading speed, lower size equals lower request time.
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Webpage Load Order: Try to show what matters first. There are many instances, especially in JavaScript, where the code prevents an image from loading faster.
Tools to Measure and Improve Website Speed
The importance of speed optimization for SEO and lead generation has resulted in the appearance of lots of tools for speed measurement available online. You do have to bear in mind that the criteria for rating website speed can be different based on multiple factors.
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First Contentful Paint (FCP), which refers to the time it takes for the first image or text to appear.
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) marks the time the largest file or image shows on the website.
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Time to Interactive (TTI), as the name suggests, is the time it takes the page to be fully interactive.
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Total Blocking Time (TBT) is the period between FCP and TTI if it takes more than 50 milliseconds.
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Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is basically how much your website changes throughout the user experience, with either pop-ups, layout, or font changes.
Several phrases and acronyms need to be considered while using any page speed test or website speed test measuring system.
Different Platforms for Site Speed Measurement
Multiple platforms can help you measure your website's speed. Here are the ones that are widely used, along with their strengths and weaknesses.
Google PageSpeed Insights
PROS:
- Completely free
- Reliable information directly from Google
- The scoring system is easy to understand
- Provides diagnosis and tips for improvements
CONS:
- The diagnosis can be a bit difficult to understand for the average person
- Some may find the suggestions lacking in info.
- Other tools can be bundled, and you can use them readily
WebPageTest
PROS:
- Detailed and comprehensive analysis of website performance
- There are multiple ways to change settings to customize your tests.
- Completely free and open-source
- Ability to monitor trends for performance for lots of websites
- 65e4Recommendation for website improvement
CONS:
- Although it is free, a sign-up is required to use its features
- It can be overwhelming to understand at first
- Even though you receive recommendations on how to improve your website, there are no clear instructions on how to do so
GTmetrix
PROS:
- Simplicity and a dashboard to receive reports on website speed
- The free version also gives you speed reports
- Clear reports and recommendations to make your websites faster
- Report of display problems
CONS:
- Some recommendations can be irrelevant
- The free version is limited and only examines certain regions
Pingdom
PROS:
- Quick and comprehensive reports
- Combines bot and real user monitoring
- Thorough cause examination of website uptime
CONS:
- Prices can be expensive
- Code functionality can be less welcoming to beginners
- Lack of emphasis on cell phone traffic
Overall, there are certain qualities that each tool has, and the major difference between them is whether they are free to use or not, and how beginner-friendly they are. We advise seeking the help of a professional to receive the best and fastest results.
Final Thoughts
In this article, I have tried my best to offer simple explanations for the difference speed makes in SEO and lead generation. At Top Organic Leads, we offer an honest review of your website’s performance and are equipped with the techniques and knowledge needed to fix any issues we find.
If you have a small business and would like to get ranked on Google, our company offers a unique pay-per-lead system that minimizes the risk of your SEO campaign.