The Six Second Attention Span
Did you know your website has about six seconds to capture the user’s attention?
As any SEO specialist will tell you, the human attention span is extremely short: a mere six to eight seconds on average. Some sources estimate that at the most, you have about 10 seconds before users get bored and leave your page for someplace new.
Now imagine that half of those precious six seconds get eaten up by your website’s loading time. With such a short attention span, how long can you seriously expect visitors to hang around waiting for your content to load?
If you’re starting to see the problem here, then you’ll understand why speed optimization (how long your website takes to load) is so important. Let’s discuss!
High Speed = High SEO Rankings
Obviously, a slow-running website is bad for user engagement. But the consequences run a lot deeper than you may think—Google uses visitor engagement statistics to rank webpages in its search engine. As visitors spend less and less time on your website, you can expect your SEO rankings to start plummeting.
High Speed = High Webpage Visibility
Additionally, the faster your pages load, the faster Google can index them. Since Google gives each website it indexes a specific crawl budget, excruciatingly slow-loading webpages mean Google will index your website much slower than it would have if your website had been up to speed. This translates to low visibility and a fewer number of your pages being indexed.
High Speed = High Conversion Rates
If you want to convert visitors, you’d better step on the gas. Multiple studies have shown that over half of online users expect a website to load in two seconds or less. When websites load in under two seconds, visitors are much more likely to convert. After two seconds, website conversion drops dramatically.
To quickly wrap up before we lose your attention, speed optimization has the power to make or break your website. Even an incredibly beautiful, incredibly sophisticated, incredibly informative website won’t do you any good if it takes longer than a few seconds to load. So cut down on the bells and whistles, find yourself a new hosting platform, and throw your website into light-speed!
If you’re running into trouble with that light-speed control, Liqui-Site has your back. An innovative team of SEO and WordPress experts, we’ve helped clients like the American Lung Association optimize their websites for speed, visibility, and conversion. Get in touch to discover how we can maximize your website for greater engagement and conversion.
