Speed, Rankings & Conversion

A familiar situation: you are doing some searching online, often "googling" and the site you find in google looks very promising, based on the "snippet" you see in Google. You click on it and then... wait. And when you wait, time goes a lot slower all at once. Any idea after how many seconds you yourself lose patience and just go somewhere else? Many people already find longer than 3 seconds slow. And this applies not only at home on the couch, but also on mobile. A fast site has even more advantages

Speed benefits

  • Visitors are positively surprised at a fast site
  • Conversions are measurably higher with fast sites
  • Google positively values site speed when determining ranking
  • People stay longer on your site if it feels light and responsive (think of internal search and checkout as well)
  • And your site management also works better when your employees are not waiting unnecessarily

Known problems

It's a familiar problem, your site is slow and the consequences are there. What happens when a site is (too) slow? Well the opposite of above, so it's bad for your online business anyway.  With hosted platforms, this problem is somewhat less common than when you have an Open Source or self-built online business. There is also a difference between mobile usage of your site and regular (desktop) visits. In general, all slow elements show up even more on mobile. The cause of a slow website speed can be anything, but at least look at:

  • Obsolete technology
  • Very large (product) photos.
  • Many visitors 
  • Slow server or poorly configured server

Test your website (or the online business you plan to buy) with the Google Pagespeed Tool. This tool grades and colors your site's speed. And then separately for mobile and desktop use. Many areas for improvement will require a technician, though. There are also known or common problems (e.g. slow Magento online business), which are sometimes difficult to solve, or where you really need to get the right expert, sometimes at a great cost.

When buying or selling

If you buy an existing online business/website, you also take over the content, server & software. A good (fast) site is then of more value than a slow one. If you have technical knowledge or expertise, there are also opportunities here. For a seller, the reverse applies: increase the value of your online business by ensuring a fast site.

If you take over a (slow) online business, then instead of improving it, you can also choose to migrate a site to a better system. Quite a few old or self-built online businesses are difficult to improve or expensive to maintain. In such a case, a migration of content and sometimes customers is required.