The Impact of Site Speed on Traffic and Conversions

If your site takes longer to load than it took to read this sentence, you’re losing customers to your competition. One of the things I constantly discuss and strive to improve is website speed. The faster your website, the better you’ll rank in SEO, and the more conversions you’ll achieve.

Starting with SEO, while the speed of your website is a ranking factor, it’s not the only one. The technical aspects of your website contribute to your overall ranking, and speed is just one part of that. However, where speed really comes into play is with user experience. The faster your site loads, the better the experience for your users.

Beyond SEO, site speed reveals a lot about a website. It’s not just a technical metric but a reflection of how well the site was built, optimized, and managed. For example, if your web designer is competent, they’ll resize your images to avoid loading massive files on every page. This is something I always check during a speed audit. If your designer spent time optimizing the site for speed, they likely thought through the structure and layout as well.

Site speed is also crucial for conversion optimization. A good user experience is a powerful sales tool, and you don’t want to create any roadblocks that could stop a customer from converting. While most businesses have high-speed internet, many of your customers will be using their phones while on the go. In these situations, speed matters more than for someone with a 1000 Mbps connection — any site can load fast with that kind of bandwidth.

If you look at your funnel from the customer first hearing about you to the customer booking a call or converting with you – your goal is to make that journey as smooth as possible. Speed is one piece of that. Nobody wants to wait around for a website to load, and they WILL go to a competitor if it takes too long. 

At the end of the day, site speed isn’t just a box to check off for Google rankings — it’s about making sure your visitors have a smooth experience from the moment they land on your site. A fast site shows that you’ve taken the time to build something that works, not just something that looks good. In a world where every second counts, having a site that loads fast can be the difference between gaining a customer or losing one. That’s why we focus on speed with every site we build, ensuring it not only ranks but performs for your business.