Your website looks good. The copy is accurate and your offer is clear. Yet you are getting fewer enquiries than you had hoped for. One cause that is easy to overlook is a page that loads too slowly.
Every extra second of loading time costs you conversions. A conversion is a visitor who does what you want them to do, such as requesting a quote, calling you or buying something. In this article you will read why speed matters so much. You will also learn how to work out what it costs you and where best to start.
Why a slow page costs you enquiries
People are impatient. This is especially true on mobile. Your visitor is on the train, in a queue or on the sofa with an unreliable connection. If the page does not appear quickly, they go back and choose another search result.
There is something else at play. A slow site feels less trustworthy. Visitors start to doubt your business before they have read a single sentence. And doubt is the last thing you want when someone has to fill in a form.
Google also pays attention to speed. It uses the Core Web Vitals, which are measurements of the user experience of a page. One of them measures how quickly the largest element on the page becomes visible. As a guideline, Google suggests a time of around 2.5 seconds or faster.
Please note that there is no fixed rule saying that one second costs exactly a certain amount. It differs by website, audience and device. That is why it makes sense to calculate it for your own site.
Work out for yourself what speed is worth
You do not need expensive tools for this. Your data in Analytics often gives a good picture already. Proceed as follows:
- Open Analytics and find your conversion rate. This is the share of your visitors who complete a conversion.
- Compare the conversion rate of fast and slow visits. You can do this with the speed report, or by comparing fast and slow pages and devices side by side.
- Calculate the difference in conversion rate between those two groups.
- Multiply that difference by the number of visitors who currently get a slow page.
- Multiply the result by the average value of an enquiry or sale.
That tells you roughly what speed is worth. Be careful with your conclusion, though. Visitors with a fast connection are sometimes different visitors too, for example office workers on a fast computer. Treat the result as an indication rather than a guarantee.
Suppose your site has 10,000 mobile visitors per month. On fast visits, 3 in every 100 people request a quote. On slow visits, it is 2 in every 100. Half of your visitors, so 5,000 people, get a slow page. That results in 50 fewer enquiries than if that group converted as well as the fast group.
Suppose 1 in 5 enquiries becomes a customer and a customer is worth 1,500 euros on average. In this example you would then be missing around 10 customers per month, representing 15,000 euros in revenue. These are made-up figures, but the method works just as well with your own numbers.
The biggest culprits
A slow site rarely has a single cause. Usually it is the sum of many small things. These are the usual suspects we come across most often:
- Images that are too large. A photo of several megabytes on a phone screen is a waste of loading time. Reduce their size and use modern file formats.
- Sliders at the top of the page. They load several large images at once and rarely add anything. One strong image with a clear button often works better.
- Too many plugins. A plugin is an extra piece of software that adds features to your site. Each plugin can add code that the browser has to load. Dozens of plugins make the site heavy.
- Tracking scripts. These are pieces of code that measure visitor behaviour for advertising and reporting. They are useful, but they pile up quickly.
- Fonts from multiple sources. If you load fonts from three sources, the browser has to wait three times. Choose a few and load them from one place.
- Slow hosting. If the server itself responds slowly, no amount of optimisation will fully solve the problem.
Start with your ad landing pages
With advertising, you pay per visitor. A click on your ad costs money, even if the visitor leaves again after two seconds. Every visitor who drops off because the page is slow is wasted budget.
That is why this is the best place to start. A landing page has a single purpose and consists of a limited number of elements, so you can improve it quickly. The gain is also visible straight away in your cost per enquiry.
There is a second reason. In Google Ads, Google also looks at the experience on your landing page. This is the page someone arrives on after clicking your ad. A slow and cluttered page can therefore push down your Quality Score. A lower score can mean you pay more for the same position.
So keep your landing pages light. Use few scripts, small images and a short route to the form. Anything that does not help the conversion can go.
How to tackle it step by step
You do not have to fix everything at once. Work in a fixed order and you will quickly see what helps.
- Measure the current situation. Use PageSpeed Insights and the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console. Test the mobile version in particular.
- Deal with the largest file at the top of the page. This is often an image. Make it smaller and load images lower down the page only later (lazy loading).
- Remove what you do not use. Think of old plugins, scripts from tools you no longer use and duplicate tracking codes.
- Load scripts more smartly. Manage your tracking through a tag manager and let non-essential scripts load later.
- Switch on caching. Caching means the server stores a ready-made version of your page. This way it does not have to rebuild the page on every visit.
- Measure again. After a few weeks, check whether your conversion rate has gone up.
Do not aim for a perfect score in a testing tool. What matters is that real visitors can do what they want more quickly.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good loading time?
As a rule of thumb, the most important part of your page should be visible on mobile within about 2.5 seconds. Faster is better. Also look at what is usual in your industry and at the figures for your own visitors.
Is a high score in PageSpeed Insights the goal?
No. The score is a tool for finding problems. The real goal is a page that feels fast to your visitors and brings in more enquiries. A slightly lower score with a good conversion rate is better than a perfect score with no results.
How quickly will I see the effect on my conversions?
You can see the improvement in loading time immediately in a test. The effect on conversions takes longer. Allow a few weeks, depending on how many visitors you have. Compare like for like periods and watch for seasonal effects.
Book a free 30-minute introductory call
Would you like to know what a faster website could do for you? We are happy to think along with you. Adventio Marketing in Amersfoort helps businesses with websites, advertising and tracking, so that the figures add up and the enquiries increase.
In a free 30-minute introductory call, we will look at your website and your landing pages together. You will get a first impression of what can be improved and what that could deliver. There is no obligation. Get in touch and book your call.
