Why Page Speed is the Most Important Factor Affecting Small Business Websites

If you regularly check your website's analytics, you'll already know that users are visiting your website on mobile devices more frequently. As smartphones and tablets become more popular among consumers, businesses are prioritizing them in their online marketing strategies.

The thing that mobile users value above all else is page speed. When they visit a website, they just want it to load as fast as possible.

According to a recent Practical Ecommerce article, mobile users aren't the only ones who keep an eye out for page speed. The article states that Google also factors it into its ranking algorithm:

"Mobile users want to take quick action. It’s important to keep the page size as small as possible so that it will load quickly. Review all the content — images, buttons, text — before including on a page. Google has reportedly started including page speed for ranking websites in the search results, so that makes it even more important to have a lighter site."

So, having a fast website isn't just important for your user-experience, it also determines whether you'll show up in Google's search results.

The article also provides insight concerning how you can improve your website's speed. It's recommended that you review all your content and test it out on mobile devices. If a video or image is taking too long to load, it's probably just better to cut it out.

You should never compromise your website's functionality or user-experience for aesthetic design. The most important thing is that your website is fast enough for mobile users to access.

To talk more about small business websites, or anything else, please contact us.