How Page Load Time Impacts Your Bottom Line

We’ve all experienced it: you typed in a URL or clicked a link, and you’re waiting… waiting… still waiting for a page to load. Seconds feel like minutes. And odds are, within a couple seconds, you’re trying to decide – do you want the content enough to wait for it? Or do you hit the back button and go elsewhere?

Page load time isn’t a new concern in the web world by any means. Before high-speed internet connections, we fretted about how many KB an image or page was. Problem is, some people have gotten too lax, and the bells and whistles on a website can slow it down. And a slow site isn’t good for our users. Plus we know that Google now factors page load time into search results, so it’s important for SEO, too. Does that mean all sites should be ugly and basic?! Absolutely not. Scripts and images can be optimized and we can always enhance user experience. But in the quest for the newest coolest thing, some businesses are losing site visitors. And it doesn’t matter how cool the site is if no one is there to see it.

The latest infographic from Kiss Metrics highlights some of the statistics around page load time and how it can impact a business’ bottom line. One important thing to note is the mobile user’s experience – with more people accessing the web through mobile devices, and with that trend only continuing to grow, now is the time to examine how your site(s) perform on mobile devices. We’re all getting less and less patient, and for better or for worse, our competitors are only one click (or tap) away.