Speed of a website
Why is the speed of an internet page so important?
Let’s ask ourselves a question. Let’s say you’re looking for a hydraulic service in your city. What do you do?
Most often, we turn to Google and enter related keywords. We usually do this on our phone. What are the implications of that?
If we do it like that, most of the time, we do it on the go, not sitting in front of a TV, with an emergency situation, where we need immediate help, we open Google, type in the relevant keywords, and get a list of search results. We click on the first result (the owner is already counting how much they will make from us …), wait 3, 4, or 5 seconds for the page to load, think something’s wrong with it, click the back button and go back to the search results, and click on the second result (another hydraulic service). The page loads in 3 seconds. Hurrah.
But how lucky are we? Sometimes, we immediately hit a phone number that is even clickable, so we don’t have to copy-paste it into our phone – hurrah (:.
We place an order, a professional arrives, and fixes the problem.
Now, let’s think about what costs a hydraulic service has every month for SEO or Google Ads. If their website loads first in the search engine, they pay the minimum fee per click, which is 2.48 PLN per click. For this query alone, there are 4,400 searches every month.
Let’s assume hypothetically that only 30% of these people will click on their link in the search results (keep in mind, most often, they’re looking for immediate help).
1320 potential clients every month x 2.48 PLN per click = 3273.60 PLN, which is what a hydraulic service pays every month for ads.
But let’s assume that all of these people had the patience to wait 10-15 seconds for their website to load. How much could they earn in total?
Assume that one client earns 200 PLN for this service.
100 PLN x 1320 clients per month = 132,000 PLN
Now, let’s say our hydraulic service saves 1,000 PLN on the website development cost and 200 PLN per year on hosting. Because of that, only 3% of people will wait for their page to load, instead of 30%.
3% x 4,400 searches per month = 132 clients
132 clients x 100 PLN = 13,200 PLN
Compare the numbers:
Variant 1: If our hydraulic service didn’t save on website development and hosting
Income in one month: 132,000 PLN
Variant 2: If they saved 1,000 PLN on website development and 200 PLN per year on hosting
Income in one month: 13,200 PLN
Was it worth saving those 1,000 PLN on the website developer and 200 PLN per year on hosting, at the cost of losing potential income worth 118,800 PLN?
I think that’s a rhetorical question.
Website speed is absolutely crucial for maximizing conversions.
When evaluating any business initiative, we should look not only at the initial “entry” cost but also at long-term perspectives and potential consequences of saving on things like website development or hosting.
