How Website Performance Affects SEO and Conversion Rate
Updated: Nov 2
Do you have many leads on your website however the conversion rate is not enough. Probably you create valuable content but the site still has a low SEO ranking. The poor website performance can be a reason. Let's dive into the problem.
How Website Performance Affects SEO and Conversion Rate
No one loves slow websites so if the website operates slow the user will go away until the page is loaded. This is a Bounce Rate.
Bounce Rate is the percentage of users who exit a website after only seeing one page. Users are likely to close the window or go elsewhere if a page takes too long to load. Every extra second on page speed increases the rate by about 10%. The ideal page load time is 0-2 seconds.
Below is an average Bounce Rate by Website type. If your website meets the average result, that's great but it can be better by improving the page speed index. If not, you should work on page speed optimization.
Because of the high bounce rate search engines rank the website lower. So we should monitor this metric.
How to check the page performance metrics
The most popular tool for monitoring page speed is PageSpeed Insights. However, there are some other equivalents you can find across the web.
Enter your website’s URL to see the metrics of your website. What each metric means you can look there. The main is a speed index. It should be less than 2 seconds.
How to avoid site performance issues
The most common recommendations are:
reduce rendering time,
remove unused code,
optimize images, etc.
However, it usually requires much effort or fully rewriting the application. So it's better to predict potential issues at the beginning.
How to predict website performance issues:
Use modern frameworks with server-side rendering (e.g. Next.js);
Use Content Management Systems that support optimizing content (e.g. Builder.io);
Load resources only what is needed to make the page work.
Conclusion
Now you are aware of how page speed affects conversion rate and SEO. The information can help you to calculate ROI for page speed optimization efforts. Based on objective numbers you can decide which tech stack and particular tools to use for your website optimization.
Always measure the results of your optimization actions to keep track of 5 Key Ecommerce website metrics to measure success. This complex approach to actions and measurement will affect your website in a better way to grow performance for a better SEO and conversion rate.