The Benefits of Conducting a Speed Test
Have you ever tried to watch a video or open a web page online and felt like you’ve waited forever for it to load?
You have a busy schedule and don’t want to spend the day waiting around for a website.
Today, most of the content we consume is from the Internet.
TV shows, movies, music, sports, social media, blogging, and research.
Since we are a culture that has become uncomfortable with waiting on technology, it’s important that the speed of the website pages we visit are able to keep up with our lifestyle.
As a company with a website, this is also your responsibility.
When people visit your website, they are visiting for a reason and often are looking for an answer.
If your page is loading too slowly, they may not stick around to wait.
This is called page abandonment.
The goal is to have the least amount of loading time as possible for your website.
So how long does it take for patience to really wear thin?
Desktop
30% of participants in a survey say they would wait 6-10 seconds for a page to load
20% would wait 20 seconds or more for a page to load
16% would wait 1-5 seconds for a page to load
3% would wait less than 1 second before they abandon the page
Mobile
73% of mobile users said they've encountered a website that was loading too slowly.
31% said they expect the load time to be slower on their phone
21% said they expect the load time on their phone to be equal to the load time on their computer
12% said they expect load time on their phone to be even faster than their desktop computer
This applies to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones as well.
Mobile technology is just as important, if not more so than office desktops are for Internet consumption.
*Update: In 2020, Google is preparing to move many sites to what it is calling a ‘mobile-first‘ index in 2020.
What that means, is now is the time to focus on optimizing your site to be mobile-friendly.
A quote from Doantam Phan of Google said: “…our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site…”
It has been proven time and again that slow loading time on websites leads to higher page abandonment from visitors (and potential leads!).
The average user does not wait any longer than they feel they need to.
But what can you do to make sure your website doesn’t fall into that dark pit of abandonment?
Perform a speed test!
It’s important to conduct regular speed tests to ensure the best performance of your company’s website possible.
A speed test is a quick and simple solution to learning about the condition of your company’s site and some issues it may be facing for visitors.
Speed testing will also increase the efficiency of your security software.
Higher speeds mean your software will run faster and smoother, helping you protect your computer and device from threats.
Benefits of conducting a speed test
Prevent Conversion – Website page loading time is essential to the visitor experience. A study by KISSmetrics found that even a 1-second delay in page response may result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
Maintain Search Rankings – Recently, search engines like Google have begun to take into account loading time for websites to their organic search algorithms. If you notice that there’s a drop in your search placement, speed could very well be a factor.
Protect Paid Search Investments – Very much like organic search rankings, Google will also penalize those companies who have paid search results, but slow loading speeds.
Identify Improvement Areas – Running a speed test for your website can ultimately help identify where the main issues are and allow you to focus on what is causing slower loading speed. More than often, the change needed to be made is a minor one such as converting a background image to JPG or reducing the number of external resources. These small changes will make a big difference in performance once they’re resolved.