Your small business website is one of the most important and central marketing tools you have at your disposal. You have a great layout, excellent copy, and stunning visuals – so why is your bounce rate so high? The speed of your website may be the guilty culprit.
What can slow a website down, or make a reader want to click away? And how can you improve the speed of your website that converts traffic into sales?
Website Slowdown Cause #1
A web page contains an HTML file that tells a browser how to interpret the code, along with other files like graphics, images, audio, and animation. The website is slow because it is too “heavy.” A heavy website is one that has too many files to load. Each file adds up, and too many files create a slow-loading webpage – and an impatient reader.
What are a few solutions for this problem?
- Optimize your website for faster loading. Graphics can be trimmed and compressed into a fraction of their original file size. Make sure graphics are no more than 72 dpi, and compressed into a JPEG format.
- Avoid animation. Though FLASH is tres chic, it takes a long time to load.
- Whittle your HTML. Use a web designer if necessary. Look at your code and find unnecessary tags. Use relative rather than absolute URLs that link within your website.
Website Slowdown Cause #2
Your readers cannot navigate their way through a website. The links are vague, and the route to an answer is difficult.
The solution to this woe includes:
- A website without clear navigation is also a slow website – for the visitor. Be sure your visitors can access the pages they need to answer questions and find products. That means having crystal clear navigation links on the side or top, as well as on the bottom of a web page.
- Including too many graphics creates a site that is confusing, cluttered, and frantic. Use graphics, but minimally.
- Be sure your text is in an easy-to-read font and broken into smaller paragraphs. Don’t write so much text that a reader has to scroll forever to reach the end. Be succinct.
With a faster website, you may just find your sales growing faster too!
