We all know the one odd website or app that loads slowly and takes up a lot of time. How many times do you close other tabs on your browser when stuck on a slow website with a sluggish loading speed? This is common practice when dealing with perilously slow speeds.
Now imagine people coming to your website having a similar experience. They too end up closing tabs only to make sure your website can cope. It’s never a good feeling to see the end user struggling to manage the shortcomings of your website.
Now, speed is not a lofty, unachievable goal. There are a myriad of ways and hacks to streamline website speed. Some of them are easy and free to implement while others require more complex solutions.
In any case, there are enough actions you can take unilaterally to enhance website speed. However, it is first important to understand its effects in the context of your own website. For instance, if you happen to use AppMySite’s web to app converter for your business, a fast website will also ensure smooth app speed. So, continue reading and find out!
Factors influenced by your website’s speed
How important is speed for the success of a WordPress blog? Does it only affect the experience of website visitors or are there additional knock-on effects? Let’s explore.
#1: User experience
The first and obvious reason website speed matters is user experience. Low speeds immediately hamper the user journey and drive people away. There really is no faster way to lose traffic and business than serving website content at sluggish speeds.
This can become a big problem on websites that require constant user interaction. Slow page loading speeds can frustrate users quickly when they’re actively engaging with the website.
If your website speed experience is not smooth, any goal you have, such as lead generation or online sales basically goes out of the window. If you cannot piece together a half-decent website experience for an incoming visitor, there is no point in running the website at all.
A slow restaurant is a good analogy to understand this concept. You can’t run a restaurant if your chef takes an hour to prepare every dish. Even a great interior design and fantastic ambiance can’t save your restaurant if you cannot send out dishes in a timely manner.
Your website can have a great theme, engaging content, and valuable features, but it all matters for naught if the underlying speed is low. You’re again back to square one with a poor website speed.
#2: SEO and visibility
Not all websites are overly concerned about user experience as long as they keep getting good traffic from Google. The search engine however is not as free-spirited about ignoring website speed.
Website speed is a key ranking factor. There are numerous examples of websites gaining and losing ranks simply on account of poor loading speeds.
Google has its own speed measuring tool called PageSpeed Insights that enables users to check the speed of any live website. It is safe to say that getting a good score on this tool is a must if you plan on competing and winning for high volume keywords.
The contribution of website speed to search rankings creates an entirely new dynamic in the world of SEOs. Generally, SEOs focus on content, link building, and other related activities. Website speed is a metric that makes the practice a little more challenging and UX-focused.
#3: Bounce rate
Low speeds naturally lead to people leaving the website as soon as they arrive on it. Thus, bounce rate is another important reason website speed is important.
What does the bounce rate refer to? It is simply the percentage of people who choose to leave a website after arriving on one of its pages. A high bounce rate shows more people leaving a website after arriving on it. A low bounce rate contrarily shows a majority of people staying on a website.
There are a lot of things that keep people on a website. Content is the first thing that comes to mind. We spend a lot of time on social media and streaming platforms partly because of the content quality.
Along with great content, social media platforms are also adept at delivering content at a fantastic speed. Part of the reason people stay on social media platforms for so long is the overall performance. It is impossible to retain people for a long time without decent website speed.
#4: Conversion rate
Online marketing campaigns are always driven by objectives. It is always necessary to turn engagement into real conversions.
Every company runs a website with a goal in mind. Some want to generate leads and some want to sell their products online. The overall direction of every marketing campaign is heavily influenced by the end objective.
The speed of a website can naturally have a major impact on the conversion rate. How likely are people to buy products or enter contact info on a sluggish and unresponsive website?
A car can be visually appealing and meet all the aesthetic standards of a modern automobile. However, a bad engine can still cause its downfall. Website speed is the engine of a marketing campaign. You can strategize and set up a top-notch marketing campaign, but it won’t succeed if your website is slow and performs poorly.
#5: App performance
Generally, people do not relate slow website speeds to poor app performance. However, tools like AppMySite’s free online app maker help users forge a connection between website and app performance.
Companies generally develop an app with coding. They either hire developers or work with third-party agencies to create an app for their business.
This approach is changing with the arrival of DIY-app-making tools. AppMySite is one of the more prominent automated app makers around. It enables you to create apps for your CMS websites like WordPress and build fully-custom apps from scratch.
How does this affect website and app performance? Most app makers enable users to build apps using their websites as a base. AppMySite’s WordPress app builder, for example, directs users to install a WordPress plugin on their website.
This establishes a connection between the website and the app maker, and the app emulates the website’s contents and features. Thus, the performance of your blogging website leads to a direct impact on the app’s speed.
WP Engine – Our recommended website performance solution
WP Engine is a leading web hosting provider, serving more than 90 thousand clients in over 140 countries. Many WordPress website owners gravitate towards WP Engine to meet their performance needs.
The main point to remember here is the nature of WP Engine’s web hosting service. WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting service. This simply means it is specially designed to provide seamless experiences in WordPress environments.
Besides offering blazing-fast speeds instantly, WP Engine is also a great choice to scale website security with measures like 2FA, data encryption, and more. Therefore, if you have a blogging site built on WordPress, you can consider WP Engine for easier maintenance and better performance.
In conclusion
We all intrinsically value website performance despite not knowing its direct impact on various verticals. The points made in this article shed light on the various reasons website speed is important.
A website now is not just a platform to run your business. As discussed above, it can also become a stepping stone for creating mobile apps with the help of DIY app makers and web to app converters.
It is thus vital to constantly work on website speed optimization. The fastest way to get blazing-fast speeds is upgrading to a premium web host. Our recommendation in this regard is WP Engine. It is a reliable hosting partner for WordPress and WooCommerce websites.
You should also work on improving other aspects of your website to optimize speed such as compressing images, leveraging caching options, and more. Refer to our huge repository of blogs on Performance and Security and learn more.