Google said it best – “The Web should be fast.” Nowadays with all the choices people have, the speed of your website can impact your bottom line. Here are a few stats to get you thinking:

• 700 million people are using mobile broadband to access the web
• Mobile browsing will over take desktop browsing by end of 2014
• 47% of customers expect websites to load in 2 seconds or less
• Google considers speed when ranking websites
• A one-second delay can decrease conversions by 7%
• Business who addressed the speed of their website saw a 40% growth in traffic

Test Your Speed

How do you know if your website is performing properly? Do not trust your local connection; take a moment to run your website through a speed tester like GTMetrix. This site will provide you with a report on what is slowing down your website, as well as recommendations on how to fix these speed bumps.

What Slows Down a Website?

There are many things that can make your website sluggish. Many of these items are within your control but a few that may be outside your reach. When working with a web development team or agency, be sure to ask them what speed standards they guarantee when building your website.

Images:

Now more than every people want to see big images. Many responsive websites we design require larger images; however, it is important for you to understand the value of optimizing images for load time. When you post your images let the browser know the size of the image. Also be sure to take the time to determine and understand file size, rather than relying solely on image dimension.

Server Speed:

The environment on which your website is hosted can impact the performance of your site as well. If you are working with a low-cost hosting company that does not optimize their server for speed, you may want to look into other options.

Website Coding:

How your website is built makes a difference in your success. Does your website have animation? Be sure the code is properly optimized for site speed. You can use some great tricks with CSS coding and browser caching. Be sure to discuss these options with your website team and ask them what standards they follow.

Add-ons / Plug-ins:

Third party tools can be a great asset to your website, but how the code works and how it affects your speed may be out of your control. We recently noticed by switching from ShareThis to AddThis for social sharing we increased the speed on our website. Discuss these options when you’re looking at little ways to speed up your site.

The speed of your website can impact your Google ranking and your customer satisfaction rating. Take a moment to see how your site measures up and budget your updates as an investment in your success.