The era of the internet has literally changed the way business is done. Well, some business practices have remained the same, but other aspects are radically different today.
For example, businesses no longer rely on TV ads alone to boost sales or increase brand awareness. These companies have resorted to exploring digital marketing vehicles such as website optimization (also known as search engine optimization), social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing just to mention a few to take their businesses to new heights. However, today it is all about web optimization and how it can benefit your business. (We’ll cover the other top digital marketing strategies in detail later)
By the time you’re done with this article, you’ll have a clear view of just how crucial web performance is and how speed optimization plays an important role in.
Stand out from your Competition
According to a research conducted by MineWhat.com, 81% of shoppers conduct online research before making a purchase. So the question you should be asking yourself is; when your potential prospects are searching for your products/services, who will they come across first –your business or your competitors?
Let us show how you can keep your business one move ahead of your competition with SEO:
- Constantly updating your content –fresh content is appealing to search engines and visitors.
- Choose your keywords carefully – driving relevant and targeted traffic is key.
- Keep a close eye on your competitors SEO activities – the title tag structure, use of keywords in headings, image tags, in-page links, meta tags and other SEO related activities. It always pays off.
- Monitor the backlinks driving the most traffic to your competitors – find new opportunities for your site to explore.
- SEO is constantly changing. Be on your toes.
When you effectively optimize your website, you not only stay ahead of the competition, but also make it easier and more pleasant for your potential buyers to find you.
Increased Relevant Traffic
Traffic is good for any business, however, not all traffic is good. When your web visitors are leaving faster than they arrived, it can only mean one thing; your website is attracting a lot of irrelevant traffic. Only developing a strong website optimization strategy that includes the components listed below will help your business drive qualified traffic.
- Target the right keywords- use of long-tail keywords can be effective. Please note; keyword stuffing doesn’t sit well with Google.
- Your website should be well designed – Both Google and web users love well-built sites.
- Improve your site speed – reduce or get rid of any slow loading content on your pages.
- Fine-tune title tags and meta descriptions – first impressions matter a lot.
- Create only high quality, informative content.
- Use high-quality images and videos.
Media Post reported that 72% of marketers from enterprise rate search engine optimization as successful in achieving marketing objectives like lead generation and increased web traffic.
Boost Sales
As stated above, a high percentage of buyers conduct an online search before making a purchase. If you continue to drive more relevant traffic to your websites, search engines take note of this and you’ll see your website rise the ranks to the top. If you get to the top of search results; visitors, customers and prospects find you hence, increased sales!
However, don’t be fooled by agencies who claim to guarantee top ranking in search results within a month or two. It may take a while for your business to see results.
Better Brand Recognition
When your website is ranked high, you attract more web visitors. Highly ranked companies in search results are considered to be reputable and trustworthy. With that in mind, you can get your web visitors to purchase your item so they can get familiar with your service/product.
More qualified traffic. More conversions. More brand exposure.
Long-term Strategy
Website optimization can have a long lasting impact on your web site traffic. Once you reach the top and have a proper online marketing strategy in place, it would be exceptionally difficult for competitors to trounce you. Furthermore, brand recognition helps to strengthen your customer relationships.
Web Optimization and Speed Optimization:
In the world of digital marketing, there are some elements businesses cannot afford to overlook; website speed optimization is one of them. It plays a pivotal role in the overall success of any business and thus Speeds optimization is a core essential of web optimization. Let us understand the significance of the performance of a site with all valid facts and figures:
Web performance has a direct and measurable effect on revenue and conversions
Human beings have no/little patience for slow-loading web pages. According to research conducted by Akamai in 2009, an online shopper expects your web page to load within 2 seconds. And 40 per cent of those shoppers will abandon the site if it loads more than 3 seconds.
Another new research conducted by Akamai in 2017 further shows, every page load delay of 100 milliseconds/ 1 second could lead to a 7 percent reduction in conversion rates. And a decrease in conversion rate could negatively impact your overall revenue. Hence, you have to improve your web performance to keep your bounce rate down and users happy.
Numbers don’t lie, right?
Website load speed impacts search rankings
So yes, the loading time of your website can affect your ranking. Anything that is important to Google, especially when it comes to rankings, should be important to your website as well. 1 out of 4 website visitors would leave your website is the page load time is more than 4 seconds. Additionally, over 46% of clients would permanently abandon your site because of poor load time.
Huge businesses like Amazon suffered from load time losses. Reports say that with each second of delay of load time, an online business can lose $1.6 billion annually.
Even though page speed is not the only factor that determines the rank order of search results, it definitely plays a significant role in the success of your website.
Faster pages rank higher than slower pages.
Site performance and user experience
When your web visitors leave your website faster than they arrive, it can only mean two things (well, it could be more); they did not have the patience for your slow loading page or your website simply fell short of expectations.
As per a report, if your website is slower than a blink of an eye or says 400 milliseconds, you are losing your users. The engineers at Google say that users accept a page load time of .4 seconds and nothing longer than that.
Another study shows bounce rate increases by 103 percent when there is a 2- second delay in page load time. So, if you want to stop visitors from leaving your website so quickly and keep them happy & satisfied, improve your page load speed.
If you have a quick load time, you can watch the number of conversion rising. Some real-life examples include 15.4 % of hike experienced by Firefox after Mozilla increased its page speed by 2.2 seconds. Similarly, Walmart, with every 1-second improvement enjoyed a 2% increase in conversion rates.
Website speed optimization and mobile users
Mobile users have literally zero patience for poor website performance. In fact, 40 percent of mobile users will abandon your site and go to your competitor’s site following a bad mobile experience.
Statistics further show, 85% percent of them expect sites to load at least as fast as or faster than sites on their desktop. So, if your site speed disappoints, they are unlikely to come back. And since over half of online sales are made via mobile devices, you stand to lose a lot if your website ignores mobile users.
Improving the page load time for your website may not be everything you’d need to drum your way to digital business success, but it’s a solid marketing plan that can increase conversions and revenue. But, it’s unfortunate how most people undervalue its importance.
Harry Shum, speed specialist and computer scientist for Microsoft says that .25 seconds delay or increase in the page load time decides the extent of the competitive advantages for any online business.
I hope this article has managed to convince you just how important website speed optimization is for your business.
