How Fast Should My Website Be?
Websites are like cars. They need to be fast enough for your needs, but not too slow that they’re frustrating to use. The same goes for websites; you need them to load quickly (or at least quickly enough), but if they take too long, it can annoy or frustrate users who might leave the site before the page is loaded.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to how fast a website should be because there are many factors involved in determining just how much speed is good enough for any given situation.
What kind of content does your website have? How often do you update it? Is it text-heavy or image-heavy? When was the last time you did some maintenance? These factors will influence how fast your website is.
How Fast Does Your Website Have to Be?
Your website should ideally load between 1-2 seconds. Anything longer can prevent your audience from sticking around. The longer your website takes to load, the more it will bleed potential customers by the hour.
What Makes a Website Slow?
There are a number of reasons that your website might be slow, from the content you have on it to the hosting service itself. Here’s what typically makes up the bulk of page load times:
- Images and video take time to transfer over the internet
- Overpopulated pages with large amounts of text can make websites slower than those without much text or media because they require more bandwidth and processing power.
- Poorly coded websites are also likely to be slow, as they’re not optimized.
These factors can all contribute to the speed of your website’s page load times and will need to be addressed accordingly before you start loading pages more quickly.
Perceived Speed vs. Actual Speed
When people talk about how fast or slow a website is, they’re often talking about perceived speeds rather than real page load times.
Perceived speeds are what users perceive websites as being based on their experiences using them; nothing more than an opinion.
Actual web page load time is much harder to measure objectively because there are so many factors that come into play when trying to determine exactly how long it takes for the information you requested from the server (or elsewhere) can be found by your browser and loaded onto your screen.
Should I Hire a Website Developer?
If you’re trying to figure out whether or not your website is fast enough, it might be a good idea to hire someone who knows what they’re doing.
Website developers are trained in the latest coding practices and optimization techniques as well as how different types of content can change load times.
They’ll know exactly how long your site should take to load so that users don’t have issues with page speed on any device, from desktop computers to mobile phones.
Contact Us Today!
Having a fast website is key for attracting potential customers and keeping them there long enough to convert. If you believe that your website is too slow, then we can help.
Contact us today to speak to a member of our team.
