The Speed-Revenue Connection
Here are some eye-opening statistics:
- 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take over 3 seconds to load
- A 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions
- 47% of consumers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less
For a local business, slow website speed literally costs you customers.
What Slows Down Websites?
1. Large, Unoptimized Images
Images are often the biggest culprits. A single unoptimized photo can be 5MB when it should be 100KB.
2. Poor Hosting
Cheap shared hosting means your site competes with hundreds of others for server resources.
3. Too Many Plugins
Every plugin adds code that must load. WordPress sites are notorious for plugin bloat.
4. No Caching
Without caching, your server rebuilds pages from scratch for every visitor.
5. Render-Blocking Resources
CSS and JavaScript files that block page rendering until they're fully loaded.
How to Test Your Site Speed
Free tools to check your performance:
- Google PageSpeed Insights - pagespeed.web.dev
- GTmetrix - gtmetrix.com
- WebPageTest - webpagetest.org
Aim for:
- First Contentful Paint: Under 1.8 seconds
- Largest Contentful Paint: Under 2.5 seconds
- Total Page Size: Under 3MB
Quick Wins for Speed
Optimize Images
- Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF)
- Compress images before uploading
- Use lazy loading for below-the-fold images
Enable Caching
- Browser caching for returning visitors
- Server-side caching for dynamic content
Use a CDN
Content Delivery Networks serve your site from servers closest to each visitor.
Minimize Code
- Remove unused CSS and JavaScript
- Minify and compress files
- Defer non-critical scripts
The Modern Solution
This is why we build with Next.js and modern hosting platforms. Our sites typically achieve:
- 90+ Google PageSpeed scores
- Sub-second load times
- Automatic image optimization
- Global CDN distribution
Real Results
When we rebuilt Computer Store KS's website, their page load time went from several seconds to under one second. The result? Their daily page views increased by 700%.
Is your website slow? Contact us for a free speed audit.