Whether you want to raise conversion rates in your online store or the number of users on your SaaS service, the first thing you should consider is website loading speed.
Where do you begin with website speed optimization? The ideal initial step is to become acquainted with the many sorts of website performance indicators. It may provide you with impartial feedback on whether your site is loading properly and what you can do to enhance it.
In this post, we will go through the most significant tools for measuring the performance of your website or application, as well as some ideas for improving it.
But How Does This Relate To Website Performance?
People used to have to wait for a page to load when they used dial-up modems. Unnecessary delays are now considered undesirable, and merely a few seconds of waiting may potentially cost millions of dollars in potential purchases and rapidly deter customers.
There is no simple way around this problem – if you do not take care of your site’s performance, you are severely harming your business.
What Exactly Is Website Performance?
Web performance is a notion that encompasses all of the many ways and improvements used to make websites fast, including making sluggish operations appear quick. It is intrinsically linked to web performance optimization, often known as WPO, which is a strategy for enhancing the overall quality of the user experience for those who access websites online.
What Exactly Is Page Speed?
The length of time it takes for a website to load all of its data onto the end user’s screen is referred to as page speed or website load time. There is text, interactive buttons, images, and movies. Finally, page speed is the amount of time it takes to display the final elements of a website after sending HTTP queries to a server. Simply said, page speed is the rate at which all content for its target users loads.
The performance of the site is now more critical than ever. According to a recent Unbounce poll, approximately 70% of online buyers believe that page speed is one of the most important elements impacting their online purchasing decisions.
How Do You Assess The Performance Of A Website?
There are several methods for measuring the performance of a website, each of which focuses on a particular component of this word.
There are several speed test sites and load-testing tools available to give admins and developers vital insights into which buxic elements of a site require more attention and development. The most often used tools are:
- WebPageTest
- Sematext
- GTmetrix
They each measure various performance parameters.
We may categorize key performance indicators into three separate groups:
- Traditional technical performance measures,
- Content-related performance metrics, and
- User-based performance indicators.
Why Is Website Performance Important?
The significance of key metrics for website performance in today’s digital environment cannot be overstated. A speedier website may benefit all elements of doing business online, from the effects on UX to the true impact on bounce rate and other KPIs.
Furthermore, a comparable reduction in the checkout page resulted in a 1.55% improvement in the session-based conversion rate.
Website performance has an undeniable and quantitative impact on practically all important performance measures. After lowering the average page loading time by 850 milliseconds, an E-commerce company specializing in frozen meals increased conversions by 7% and lowered bounce rates by 7%. Simply, the faster a page loads, the more likely a user is to do the desired action on that page.