February 9, 2022 by Stonewave team
The loading time or the performance of a website refers to the amount of time a browser requires in order to fully load all its functional pages. Websites with increased loading times cause users to search elsewhere, while websites with improved performance receive lower Abandonment and higher Conversion Rates.
Today, every business wishes to please its customers by offering a unique user experience. While technology advances, users become more impatient and it is highly possible that they will not wait for more than two seconds for the website to load.
An old proverb says that “the first impression is the last impression”. The same goes for websites. When users visit a website for the first time, they immediately form an opinion about its quality and its owner. If the website loads instantly, a good first impression has been established. In this case, visitors are content and eager to continue their navigation since a fast loading website is always considered more reliable.
Over the past few years, users favor their mobile devices when it comes to browsing. This means that it is essential to optimize a website’s loading time for its mobile version. When a website is visited on a mobile device, the SEO results are different than when it is visited on desktop computers. Hence, the website’s owner must focus on providing even lower loading times for mobile devices.
There are various parameters that affect the loading time of a website such as its size, the internet connection of the user as well as the website’s hosting :
- When referring to the website’s size, we mean its coding files and the quality of the images and videos it utilizes. They play an important role in its overall “volume” and significantly affect the respective loading time.
- If the website has been designed in a “light” manner and is properly set up, but still faces loading issues, then there might be an issue with the network connection. If the connection remains poor, there are certain techniques such as minimization, compression and content hosting via CDN that are quite useful for efficient web resources delivery.
In other words, especially in the cases of eshops, loading times are essential when it comes to Conversion Rates. An implementation team must take that into consideration from the design stage up until the day of the website’s launch.
“Besides being aesthetically pleasing, a website must also be functional. A website that is not fast, is not functional.”