Why is it important to have an optimized website?

According to analyses conducted by Kissmetrics, approximately 40 % of visitors leave a website if it does not load in a reasonable time!

Surely each of us has encountered an online store at some point that had excellent products on offer, but the processing speed was very low, which inevitably led (most of the time) to frustrations in purchasing the desired product or service. Following the unpleasant experience, the chances of accessing the site again will decrease considerably.

A study conducted by the giant company Amazon 10 years ago showed that a processing speed greater than 100 milliseconds cost them 1% of total sales for that year. At first glance, this may not seem like much, but considering the company’s turnover, the losses are enormous.

In 2018, Google provided the following statistic regarding website loading times on mobile phones:

• Between 1 and 3 seconds, the probability of the page closing is 32%
• Between 1 and 5 seconds 90%
• Between 1 and 6 seconds 106%
• Between 1 and 10 seconds 123%

The truth is that we are in the speed age, and latency is not an option. The heavier the site is, both in terms of loading times and interactivity, the higher the chances that potential customers will choose other competing platforms.

What impact do all these have on sales? Is it worth it for the resources invested in a website to align with market requirements? The answer is clear, Yes.

Let's take a concrete example: suppose that the company X makes a profit of 10,000 RON monthly. If we put on paper the study conducted by Amazon and the information provided by Google, a 3-second delay could lead to potential losses of up to 5%, (6,000 RON / Year).
Of course, this amount is just speculative, and the factors influencing sales are numerous. However, an annual loss of 6,000 RON cannot be compared to the amounts paid for updating and optimizing the website, which are much smaller.

Loading speed is crucial for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) indexing, Google gives much better positions to websites that perform better in response time, compared to those that are "delayed".

The issue of heavy loading can generate even more negative effects. More and more websites have appeared lately that aim to index reviews, and a large number of negative reports on such a site cannot bring anything positive.
Once the reputation is established in the online environment, it is very difficult to change people's opinions, the only way being rebranding.

Here are some more data resulting from the analysis conducted on load times, which will surely convince you of the importance of optimization:

• 35% of customers are less likely to purchase a product if the page loads slowly
• 66% of buyers state that loading times influence the website chosen for shopping
• 58% of mobile phone users expect the website to load as quickly as on a computer
• The creators of the Firefox Mozilla web browser have noted an annual increase of 60 million downloads, optimizing loading times
• of the website with 2.2 seconds
• Google loses over 20% of traffic if queries take more than 100 milliseconds
• Both Walmart and Amazon have observed a 1% increase in earnings for every 100 milliseconds reduced in loading times

In conclusion, improving loading speed is a quantifiable aspect through which the client experience in relation to the services offered can be directly optimized. In possible cases, it is better to invest in a successful solution from the very beginning than to have to "touch up" along the way!