The Impact of Website Performance on User Experience and Revenue

In this digital age, you are either on your way to win a customer, or you are on your way to losing one when it comes to the performance of your website. Website performance can be defined as the ability of your page to load, speed, and responsiveness to get a user's task done, which includes browsing information, making a purchase, or completing a form. A low-performing website not only frustrates its users, but it also costs you lost revenue.

A high-performing website is key to providing a good user experience and, consequently, improves your revenue. This blog will demonstrate how the performance, user experience, and revenue go hand in hand.

Understanding Website Performance

Performance on the web is a measure of how quickly web pages load, how smoothly they function, and how well they respond to user actions such as tapping or clicking.

There are three main aspects of performance:

• server response time
• page weight (how much data must download in order to render an image or code),
• and rendering speed (how long it takes after a user action to display something on the screen)

At the web design agency I run, we optimize all three of these elements of performance, because even small improvements can have a major impact on user experience and bottom-line results.

Why Website Performance Matters for User Experience

One of the most important elements of any good site is user experience or UX. When you visit a site, you want it to load quickly and to be easy to navigate. You want straightforward access to the information you need without any obstacles. If the site takes forever to load or has any laggy elements, you are likely to leave and go to a site that does cater to your needs.

Here's why website performance matters for UX:

• First Impressions Are Key
  Upon arriving at your website, users will form an opinion of your website's quality. If your website doesn't start loading in 3 seconds, 53 percent of users will leave your website. After only a few seconds, your website can give your visitors the impression that your business is not credible or professional.
• Page Speed Impacts Engagement
  It is undeniable that the longer your website takes to load, the less user interaction you will receive. When a site has a faster loading speed, users are more inclined to stay on the site and consume more content, therefore spending more time on the site and interacting more with it. The opposite happens when a site lags behind, prompting users to leave more quickly, resulting in a higher bounce rate.
• Affecting Conversion Optimization Rates
  With every second of load time between 0-5 seconds, conversions decrease by 4.42 percent. If your site is slow, even the best-conceived call to action buttons, even a finely honed sales funnel, is going to underperform.

How Website Performance Affects Revenue

The speed of your website not only affects user experience. It also affects the bottom line. For an e-commerce store, a service-based company or a content-driven portal, the performance of your website can make or break efforts to monetise your traffic.

Here's how:

• Lower Conversion Rates
  It's no wonder that slow-loading sites discourage people from completing desired actions, such as making a purchase or filling out a contact form: a 1-second delay in page response will, on average, result in a 7 percent loss in conversions. For an e-commerce business making, say, $100,000 per day in online sales, that's $2.5 million in lost revenue every year.
• Decreased Customer Loyalty
  Users expect the site to perform well every time they return and, if performance fluctuates, your brand will lose some of its perceived trustworthiness, and also get hurting customer retention rates and lifetime value. A happy customer is more likely to return to the site and recommend it to others.
• Negative SEO Impact
  Website speed is a significant factor of SEO. Search engines, such as Google, use site speed and responsiveness as a factor in their rankings. If your site is slow, it is likely going to be ranked lower, which in turn means less organic traffic and less opportunity to make money from your site.

Key Performance Metrics to Monitor

If your goal is to provide a website with great user experience, you'll need to keep tabs on and improve the following performance metrics:

• Page Load Time
  This is the amount of time it takes a page to load completely. Pages should load in less than 2 seconds.
• Time to First Byte (TTFB)
  This is an indicator of how long it takes your browser to receive its first byte from your server. The lower your TTFB, the faster your server response time.
• First Contentful Paint (FCP)
  FCP, for example, measures the time to first content paint – or the time when the very first piece of content (text, image) is painted to the screen. A fast FCP means that the screen does not stay blank for too long.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
  CLS stands for cumulative layout shift. Imagine if you were scrolling down a page, and all of the items in view were shifting position in unusual ways as they were being loaded. Frustrating, right? A CLS score that is low indicates that users should have a more stable experience.

Common Website Performance Issues

Once you know what to look out for, optimizing performance is a question of knowing how to fix them. So here are a few of the most common performance issues — and how to fix them.

• Large Image Sizes
  High-resolution images can really weigh your site down; so you should use image compression tools and modern image formats, such as WebP, to keep file sizes within reasonable limits, even if it's at the expense of some image quality.
• Unoptimized Code
  Extra HTML, CSS and JavaScript are unnecessary bloat to your pages. Minify and combine as many files as possible and remove unused code.
• Server Performance
  Slow server response times can affect the whole speed of your website. Try a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute your content and lower server load times.
• Third-Party Scripts
  Too many third-party scripts (analytics, ads, social media) will slow down loading times. Load only what is essential and asynchronously whenever possible.

Real-World Examples of Performance Optimization Impact

We have helped our clients at IBA Agency to get outstanding results by optimizing the performance of their websites.

Here are a few real-world examples:

Case Study 1: E-commerce Store

• Client:
  An online apparel store
• Problem:
  Slow page load speeds were causing a high bounce rate and low conversion for the client.
• Solution:
  We have performed an audit of the performance of your Web Site and we have made some improvements in the code (image compression, minification of code and integration of CDN) as well as others that are not directly visible but that affect the performance of your website.
• Findings:
  Page load times were cut in half, conversions rose by 35 percent and average order value (AOV) grew by 20 percent.

Case Study 2: SaaS Company

• Client:
  A SaaS provider
• Problem:
  The site's complicated coding structure, with many third-party scripts to load, led to slow loading times and a bad user experience.
• Solution:
  We refactored the code, stripped out unnecessary scripts, and optimized the database tables for query performance.
• Findings:
  The client's bounce rates decreased by 40 percent, registrations went up by 25 percent, SEO rankings improved, which in turn brought in more organic traffic and subscriptions.

Best Practices for Optimizing Website Performance

To maintain optimal website performance, follow these best practices:

• Regular Performance Audits
  Audit speed frequently using tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix and fix problems that arise.
• Use Caching
  Use caching to store copies of your web pages, so that the web server doesn't have to generate the page every time it is requested. This speeds up delivery of content as the browser doesn't need to wait for the server to process the request.
• Optimize Media Files
  Compress images and videos and lazy load them so they're not loaded until the user has them in their viewport.
• Leverage Browser Caching
  You can make your site load faster for returning users by letting them store images, stylesheets and other elements in their browsers – this is what is known as browser caching.

Performance Optimization as a Revenue Driver

To sum it up, website speed is not just a technical matter but a vital aspect of your business strategy. A fast and responsive website with intuitive navigation can increase your user's experience, SEO rankings and ultimately your revenue.

Conclusion

The IBA Agency builds websites that provide real results. If you're ready to supercharge your website's performance and convert more visitors into customers, Get a Quote now. Implementing the strategies we discussed in this blog will turn your website into a conversion powerhouse.