The impact of page load speed on conversion rates
The speed with which your website loads — page load speed — has a direct impact on its conversion rates. This is true across all devices — desktop, tablet and mobile. In general, the longer it takes for a webpage to load, the less likely it is that a person will take action on your website.
Conversion rate
A conversion takes place when a visitor takes a desired action on a website such as submitting a contact form or purchasing a product. Conversion rate is defined as the number of times a site visitor takes the specified action divided by the number of total site visitors. For example, if a website has 200 total visitors and 10 of those visitors complete the contact form, then the conversion rate for the contact form page is 5 percent.
Page load speed
Page load speed is the difference in time between entering a page URL in a browser or clicking on a link and when the content of a web page is completely visible on your screen. As you know, your page content (text, images and/or video), the speed of your device, the speed of your internet connection and many other factors affect how quickly a page loads.
What is the impact of page load speed on conversion rates?
Here are five statistics we’ve collected to answer that question.
- The first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates. (Portent, 2019)
- Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time (between seconds 0-5). (Portent, 2019)
- Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer. (Unbounce, 2019)
- The highest ecommerce conversion rates occur on pages with load times between 0-2 seconds. (Portent, 2019)
- Website conversion rates drop by an average of 2.11% with each additional second of load time (between seconds 0-9). (Portent, 2019)
Takeaway
Rapid page load speed is critical to the success of your website. Your website must load quickly so people will stay on your site long enough to convert and make your business more prosperous. For specific suggestions on improving your page load speed, refer to the Performance section of the Buzzquake SEO Checklist.
