(888) 807-MART
Reputation Mart
  • Reputation Management
  • Listing Protector PRO
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
    • PPC Evaluation
  • MORE...
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Expert SEO Services
    • Pricing & Packages
    • Contact
    • About >
      • Executive Team
    • Healthcare & Medical Spas
    • Non Profits & Charities
    • Blog
    • Customer Support
    • Free Tools >
      • Free Website SEO Audit Tool
      • Free SEO Checklist
    • Referral Program
    • Videos
    • Free Trial
  • Reputation Management
  • Listing Protector PRO
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
    • PPC Evaluation
  • MORE...
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Expert SEO Services
    • Pricing & Packages
    • Contact
    • About >
      • Executive Team
    • Healthcare & Medical Spas
    • Non Profits & Charities
    • Blog
    • Customer Support
    • Free Tools >
      • Free Website SEO Audit Tool
      • Free SEO Checklist
    • Referral Program
    • Videos
    • Free Trial

Blog

Picture

2/3/2018

0 Comments

How Website Speed Can Make or Break Your Online Reputation

 
Website speed load time progress bars

How Website Speed Can Make or Break Your Online Reputation

The easy access to information via smartphones has empowered Canadian consumers to make decisions faster than ever before, and they want to act upon these decisions straight away.

Any hurdles in accessing information such as slow load time of your website can negatively affect your online reputation.

Rise of Smartphone Use

According to Statista, 62.37% of the population in Canada used a smartphone in 2016. The Statista 2016 data showed:

  • 54% Canadians compare prices of a product/service using a smartphone
  • 67% Find the nearest store location
  • 6% Check for discounts
  • 44% Read reviews
  • 21% Look at competitive product/service
  • 61% Check availability
  • 59% Compare features
  • 1% Make a purchase

On-the-Spot Decisions

A Google report showed that 82% of smartphone owners used a search engine as the initial step to gratify at least one of their needs.

According to Google, Canadians, in particular, use a search engine at the exact time they want something. This means that they’re more likely to be loyal to their needs than to any brands or products that they’ve used before. 

An example of this demand to satisfy one’s need on-the-spot is the rise the search phrase “open now”. The search giant reported that search interest in the keyword phrase “open now” has increased 3 times since 2015.

Expectation to Get Products & Services Immediately

With the rise in smartphone usage, consumers’ expectation to get the products and services they need as soon as possible has also increased.

Canadian consumers, according to Google, aren't any more willing to wait even for a few days for their orders to arrive. They want to get the products or services as soon as possible. The tech giant reported that searches for the keyword phrase “same day shipping” has grown by 160% since 2015.

The Need to Know Where to Get Products & Services

Google research showed that consumers are using their smartphones as “anywhere” assistants, turning to their phones in search of stores where they can visit to get what they want prior to leaving the house – a phenomenon that renders store browsing close to oblivion.

According to Google, over the past 2 years, mobile searches for keywords “where to shop” and “where to buy” have increased by more than 100%.

Speed Equals Revenue

Whether your website visitor is a plan-ahead type, impromptu type or that last-minute type, each of these visitors all want the same experience: they want to get the information they want right here and right now.

The basic website load time can either make or break your brand reputation.

SOASTA’s report "The State of Online Retail Performance" released in Spring 2017 found the following key insights regarding site load time:

  • Even as nearly half of all consumers browse their smartphones, only 1 in 5 complete transactions on mobile.
  • Optimal load times for peak conversions ranged from 1.8 to 2.7 seconds across device types.
  • Mere 100-millisecond delay in load time hurt conversion rates by up to 7%.
  • Bounce rates were highest among smartphone shoppers and lowest among those using tablets.
  • Optimal load times for lowest bounce rates ranged from 700ms to 1.2s across all device types.
  • A two-second delay in load time hurt bounce rates by up to 103%.
  • Pages with the lowest bounce rates had start render times ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 seconds.
  • A two-second delay correlated with up to a 51% decrease in session length.

Google, for its part, reported that the average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds. Fifty-three percent of mobile site visitors, however, according to Google, abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

More than half of the overall web traffic, Google reported, comes from mobile. Despite this traffic lead, mobile falls behind desktop in terms of conversion rates.

Google researchers analyzed 900,000 mobile ads' landing pages in 126 countries. The researchers found that bulk of these mobile sites are slow and stuffed with too many features.

"Our research has been eye-opening,” said Daniel An, Global Product Lead, Mobile Web at Google. “For 70% of the pages we analyzed, it took nearly seven seconds for the visual content above the fold to display on the screen, and it took more than 10 seconds to fully load all visual content above and below the fold.”

You can check how your website fared in terms of speed at Test My Site – a free service offered by Google that analyzes your website in terms of speed and usability.

According to Google, these two are the top factors that affect site loading: number of site elements and number of images.

Researchers at Google said the high number of site elements results in greater site's weight and complexity. A typical webpage today, the researchers said, weighs 2,486KB and holds nearly 100 assets hosted on dozens of different servers – issues that contribute to slow loading.

The second factor that contributes to the slow loading of a page, the researchers said, is the high number of images. A typical page can contain logos, favicons and product images that can easily add up to two-thirds of a page's total weight – equivalent to hundreds of kilobytes. This results in cumulatively slow page loads throughout a session, the researchers said.

Reducing the number of elements and reducing the number of images in your site can make your site load faster.

Google researchers also found that webpages that have more images and other elements result in fewer conversions.

To speed up your site, a mere compression of images and text can make a big difference. Thirty percent of webpages, according to Google, could save more than 250KB through this simple process.

"It's no secret that shoppers expect a fast mobile experience,” An said. “If there's too much friction, they'll abandon their cart and move on. Today, it's critical that marketers design fast web experiences across all industry sectors. Consumers want to quickly pay bills on finance sites, get rapid results when they're browsing vacation reviews, and view an article immediately when they click through.”

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    ReputationMart.com - passionate digital marketing team.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    June 2022
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016

    Categories

    All
    Brand Reputation Management
    Business Listing
    Canada
    Content Marketing
    Customer Service
    Digital Marketing
    Instagram
    Local SEO
    Online Advertising
    Online Marketing
    Online Reputation
    Online Reputation Management
    Online Reviews
    Online Shopping
    ORM
    Pay Per Click
    Pay-Per-Click
    PPC
    Privacy
    Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
    Search Engines
    SEO
    Social Media
    Social Media Marketing
    Social Selling
    Voice Search

    RSS Feed

Reputation Mart logo

(888) 807-6278

SERVICES

PPC
Reputation Management
Social Marketing
​Expert SEO Services
​Pricing & Packages

COMPANY

About
The Company
​Leave a Review

SUPPORT

Contact
Customer Support
Client Portal
Privacy Policy

ADDRESS

Toronto & GTA
​Reputation Mart
​349 Bathurst Glen Dr.
Thornhill, ON
L4J 9A3

© 2023 Copyright Reputation Mart. All rights reserved.