Site speed is essential for keeping website visitors happy and interested while they explore your site. Your visitors expect your page load time to be lightning-fast. If the entire page doesn’t load correctly in under 3 seconds, your visitors will bounce.
Ensuring your website is fast can be the difference between getting a new client and losing them. But why is that?
There are fascinating psychological reasons why visitors demand quick page speed. We’ll take a look at them here, and share advice on what might be causing your page load speed to disappoint your potential clients.
What Visitors Expect and How Delays Affect Them
Today, visitors expect websites to be fast; even a short delay can have a significant impact. Research from the Nielsen Norman Group shows why you should be tracking page speed as one of your core web vitals:
- 0.1 Second: Feels instant, with no noticeable delay in accessing the web page.
- 1 Second: The delay is noticeable but still okay. Visitors stay focused and maintain their train of thought.
- 10 Seconds: Visitors start to lose interest, get frustrated, and may leave the site.
Delays longer than these make it harder for visitors to stay focused, and they might start feeling impatient or annoyed. This can lead to a negative impression of your company and fewer chances to keep them interested.
How Slow Page Loads Affect Visitor Emotions
Insights from Ericsson and SpeedCurve show that slow websites can have a significant impact on visitors’ emotions:
- Higher stress levels: Slow loading times can stress visitors out, like watching a scary movie or trying to solve a challenging math problem. https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2016/2/streaming-delays-mentally-taxing-for-smartphone-users-ericsson-mobility-report
- Perceived speed: How fast a website “feels” is about more than the actual loading time. It’s about how smoothly the content appears. A website that feels faster makes visitors happier, even if the load time is similar. https://www.speedcurve.com/web-performance-guide/the-psychology-of-web-performance/
Ways to Improve Your Page Speed
If your site speed is slow, don’t stress! There are tried-and-true ways to improve page speed, like these:
Enable Browser Caching
Browser caching allows frequently used resources — like images, CSS, and JavaScript files — to be stored on a visitor’s local device. This reduces the need to re-download these files every time they visit your website, significantly cutting down load times for returning users. You can enable browser caching and set cache expiration dates for different resources in your website’s .htaccess file or through your content delivery network (CDN).
Optimize CSS and JavaScript Files
Your website needs CSS and JavaScript files to work properly, but they can sometimes slow your page speed. The best way to ensure they don’t weigh down your website is to minimize them, removing unnecessary spaces, comments, and code to reduce their size. You can also combine multiple CSS and JavaScript files into single files to reduce the number of HTTP requests. Plus, you can ensure your initial page load is as fast as possible by scheduling a delayed load for non-critical JavaScript.
Improve Server Response Time
Your server directly impacts how quickly your website loads, and a slow server can cause your website loading to stall. Work with a reliable hosting provider to improve your site speed, then make it even faster by reducing resource-heavy processes and utilizing tools like server caching and database optimization. Keep a close eye on your server performance so you can identify and address bottlenecks before they become bigger issues.
Use Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights analyzes your website’s performance and identifies areas for improvement. This tool provides a detailed breakdown of issues like unoptimized images or excessive JavaScript execution, which may be slowing down your site. It’s a great way to get actionable insights on how to significantly boost your page speed while aligning your site with best practices for performance.
Optimize Images for Faster Loading
Large images are clunky and slow to load, but optimizing images can drastically improve your site speed. To optimize your images, use modern file formats and make your images smaller (without losing quality) by compressing them. Check that when users access your site from mobile devices with smaller screens, an appropriately-sized image loads in response.
Key Takeaway
Making your page load faster is vital to giving visitors a good experience. A fast-loading, responsive website helps visitors stay focused and happy, which makes them more likely to become clients.