What Is Web Performance and Why Does It Matter?

Web performance is how long a web page takes to load, become interactive and respond to user interactions. You can tell how well a page performs by asking yourself: can I click the buttons? Does the page scroll smoothly? Do the animations feel slow on my phone?

If we want users to trust our brand, bring back more returning visitors and have more users choose our site over a competitor’s, we need to create a good user experience. And web performance is precisely a part of that user experience. Most users place speed at the top of their UX hierarchy of needs (User Experience).

[Imagen: pirámide de UX]

A site’s experience shapes how users trust your brand, come back to your site and recommend it. Loading time and how fast the site feels are a big part of that experience, and should be valued as much as, or more than, the site’s look and features.

Why is web performance important?

Users are extremely sensitive to loading times. They expect web pages to load in two seconds, and after three seconds, up to 53% of users will leave the site. Poor web performance lowers sales and hurts our brand’s reputation. And of course, it also works the other way around: Pinterest increased search engine traffic and sign-ups by 15% when it cut perceived wait time by 40%.

Let’s look at some studies and data on how web performance affects the end user’s experience:

Google uses page speed as a factor in its ranking algorithm. This means faster pages rank higher. They do this because they want to show their users results that offer a better experience.

Lower abandonment rates

A slow website can increase abandonment by 75%. If you sell through your website, speed is crucial: 20% of users abandon their shopping cart because of long loading times.

Cheaper for your customers

Mobile traffic accounts for roughly 50% of web traffic worldwide. Larger pages don’t just take longer to download, they also cost more to download. Better-optimized web pages mean more time your potential customers can spend on your site.

Performance isn’t a quick fix

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. Just like search engine optimization, there’s no secret recipe for web performance. There are some quick wins, like enabling compression, optimizing images, moving to HTTP/2 and so on. However, every page is different, and performance requires measuring, analyzing and monitoring.

Do you have a website and your customers report that it’s slow? Contact us and we’ll be glad to help