Ta-da! Your new website has just been published. The design is daring, the copy is compelling, and the SEO is superb! But how’s the speed? All the bells and whistles aren’t much good if people won’t stay on your site because it’s too slow.

Why Speed Matters

Studies show that even a one second delay in loading a page can result in 11 percent fewer page views and drop customer satisfaction by a whopping 16 percent.

Cloud services expert Akamai found that 40 percent of browsers will abandon a web page that takes longer than three seconds to load and that about 47 percent believe a web page should load in no more than two seconds.

Along with creating a good user experience, a fast website can improve your search engine rank as well as your Ad Words Quality Score.

Google actually uses desktop and mobile page speed as part of its ranking algorithm. It’s not the most important factor, but it can be what moves your site ahead of another with the same relevance and authority. A high search ranking can then help boost your AdWords score which in turn affects your costs per click among other things.

Now that you know why page speed is important, here’s how to make it happen.

How To Improve It

It’s hard to fix something if you don’t exactly what’s broken, so the first step is to learn your current Page Speed Score using Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.

The scores range from 0 to 100, and 85 or higher generally means your site has decent performance speed. You also get a report with very specific data and exact instructions on how to boost your speed score to improve your website’s overall user experience.

If you’re not technically inclined, an experienced web developer can run this report and will understand how to implement any suggested or required changes.

So while slow and steady might win the race in some situations, fast and exciting is what will make your website a winner in your market space.