Patience isn’t a common virtue among website visitors. In fact, impatience is their predominant trait. Whatever a website does must be done quickly. Case in point is the load speed of home pages. Lightning fast is the minimum, with acceptable timeframes measured in seconds. Go too slow, and visitors will bounce. Digital marketers must prevent this abandonment at all costs.
Ever eager for data, Google has explored the matter and concocted a correlation of bounce probabilities to different loading speeds. Here’s how some of their findings break down: If the page requires 1-3 seconds to load, bounce probability jumps to 32%. 1 - 6 seconds takes it to a 106% likelihood. And when the homepage requires 1 – 10 seconds of loading time, the probability soars to 123%.
When every second counts, digital marketers are dutybound to develop speedy home pages. Start with image compression. Why? Because bulging graphics files are major page impediments. The more data carried by images, the slower the loading. By reducing data baggage through compression, marketers create peppier pages.
Browser caching provides similar speed jumps. With this option, select digital elements are stored in a special cache, where they are permanently integrated with the home page. When the page loads, these elements automatically display, eliminating the need to pull them in one by one.
And don’t forget to do a plug-in check. This process reveals which plug-ins are necessary, and which should be relieved of duty. Again, by ridding your page of excess baggage, you facilitate speedier load times.
Before tackling any overhauls, digital marketers should give their home page a thorough speed test. It’s the best way to know where you stand – and how far you must go.
If you have questions or comments about increasing the loading speed of a home page, or about any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way. You can connect with the Young Company team at 949-376-8404 or bart@youngcompany.com. And be sure to follow us for the latest brand marketing news and tips.