Did you know a staggering 70% of consumers admit that the speed pages load on a website affects their buying decisions?
Page Load Speed Impacts Buying Decisions
This was the finding of Unbounce’s 2019 Page Speed Report, which surveyed 750 consumers and 395 marketers.
The survey also found that the majority of marketers aren’t making page speed a priority, despite knowing it is important.
According to Google, the average time it takes for a page to load on mobile devices is 15 seconds. Given that more than half of consumers leave a page if they have to wait more than 3 seconds for it to load, marketers and businesses need to wise up to page loading speeds.
Be Mindful of Videos and Animation
Using video and animation might be popular amongst businesses and marketers but can significantly slow page loading speeds down.
Almost half of the survey’s participants admitted they would be willing to give up animation and video for faster load times.
Furthermore, a quarter of those surveyed said they would even give up images for faster load times.
Ryan Engley, VP of Product Marketing at Unbounce, told Small Business Trends that businesses need to be more mindful about why and when they use video or animation in your marketing.
“57% of consumers told us that they’d do without video if it meant faster pages — this should be a warning for ecommerce companies. We’re not suggesting that online retailers avoid video altogether—there’s plenty of evidence supporting its use — but in some cases, it could be doing more harm than good.
“We need to understand the entire user experience and the impact videos and animations can have on the speed of a web page. There’s a cost to everything and in the case of including video in our marketing, sometimes the cost is speed,” said Engley.
Use Page Speed for Competitive Gain
Unbounce’s VP of Product Marketing advises businesses to use page speed to their competitive advantage in 2019.
“Our research revealed that only 3% of companies are prioritizing page speed this year, meanwhile, the average page is still taking way too long to load — almost 15 seconds— according to Google.
“We also found that if a customer experiences a slow loading page, 15% will visit a competitor’s site and 12% will tell a friend about their negative experience!
“Companies who not only make page speed a priority this year but benchmark their speeds against their competition will be ahead of the game a year from now,” Engley said.
Ensure Pages Load Within 3 – 5 Seconds
Given the importance of page load speeds and the difference they can make between a customer browsing and buying products on your site or heading to a competitor’s site, if you want to use page load speeds to your competitive advantage, you need to ensure they load within 3 – 5 seconds.
As Ryan Engley comments:
“Our study found that online retailers should aim for pages to load within 3 to 5 seconds max. A 30-second wait for lunch at Shake Shack would be phenomenal, but even the average 15-second wait for a web page to load will sabotage online retailers’ conversions.”
Unbounce’s report also highlights the importance for businesses to recognize their site might be the cause of slow loading times, rather than blaming internet connection.
As the 2019 Page Speed Report testifies, page speed is one of the most important yet overlooked aspects in customer retention, attention and conversions.
Subsequently, if your pages are slow to load, whether it’s on desktop or mobile devices, you should take the necessary action to reduce lag and increase page speed.
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