Trying to increase the amount of clients you book? Or products you sell? It’s time to pay attention to your website’s speed. A slow loading website is the thing that’s killing your sales, as it does for hundreds of e-commerce businesses.A recent study found that retailers lose 2.6 billion dollars annually from having a slow website. Another study found that e-commerce brands with fast loading websites see a 2.5x higher conversion rate.
And if you’re reading this while refreshing your homepage in the background (only to discover that it’s slow AF), don’t worry, we're going to show you how to fix this.
We’re walking you through our top tips for increasing site speed so you can keep users on your site for longer, lead your users toward taking an action (like booking a discovery call or purchasing a course), and more than double your conversion rate.
Let’s dive in: here’s exactly how you’re going to fix your website so you stop missing out on sales:
Compress large images - Image optimization helps speed up your site load time, therefore keeping your users engaged with your site for longer. We love using Tinify for this. Simply drop your image files into the compressor, and Tinify will reduce their size for you.
Reduce URL redirects - Minimizing the amount of redirects throughout your site helps deliver content to your visitors as fast as possible. Each URL redirect adds an extra step in the process of loading your website. The user’s browser is essentially making an additional request to the server for the redirected URL, which usually results in longer load times - (AKA users get board and click off).
Avoid using large video files in your homepage hero section - The hero section (or the top section for my non-designer friends) of your homepage can affect the load times of your entire site! Not to mention, most users are probably viewing your site on mobile, and large video files take longer to download for mobile users. A website that takes forever to load is not the first impression you want to make with a potential customer.
Use JPEGs instead of PNGs when possible - JPEGs are traditionally smaller and better suited for quick load times than PNGs.. This easy fix can shave tons of time off your site speed.
Avoid animated GIFs - Besides weakening your SEO and Google ranking, GIFs are another component that will slow down your site speed. While we LOVE an occasional GIF, it’s a no from us on your website. Instead, add movement with site animations!
Limit fonts to 4 max - Using more than 4 fonts is not only visually confusing, but will make a web page load slowly. Stick to your brand guide, and only use a few fonts for your entire site.
These are all tips you can easily start implementing TODAY that have the potential to make a huge impact on your online sales. Want an expert to build you a site that’s optimized for conversions in the first place? CLICK HERE and let’s chat about building your new, high-converting website.
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