The 5 Absolutely Harmful Effects Of Having A Slow Shopify Site
For e-commerce sellers, site speed is crucial.
Novice sellers don't understand how important this is at first, but over time, the smart sellers learn that site speed is incredibly important. They learn that
slow sites kill sales.
To make matters worse, site speed is not a simple fix. The reason it's difficult is because:
- It's technical.
- The terms and details are generally unfamiliar.
- It's unclear how much it hurts sales, so it is easy to neglect.
- There aren't many professional solution providers.
HOW SLOW IS YOUR SITE?
At OmniRocket we like to use several "sources of truth" to determine how fast or slow a site is. Those include:
- Google Tools
- 3rd Party Tools
- The Shopify Site Speed Score (Found on your theme page).
Before & After Our Management:
The sites we manage will have several points of verified success. Specifically:
- Shopify Speed Score of 90+ as reported by Shopify
- A website waiting of "A" by 3rd party monitoring sites
- Pass both the Desktop and Mobile Google Core Vitals scoring for Shopify sites
We can get similar results for your Shopify site too. If you're not sure how your site is doing, let us provide a free site speed audit.
[Note, we will contact you when your report is ready, generally within 48 hours. If you have any problem, simply email us at [email protected].]
More About The Shopify Site Speed Score: A simple indicator of your site speed can be found right on your Shopify site in the theme section.
Because we've managed Shopify sites for over ten years, we've spent years studying this issue, and we've become very certain that - most sites are way too slow. And it does do real damage to site performance. This can be incredibly frustrating! So, what are the documented harmful effects of having a slow Shopify site speed? Let's look at five issues.
FIVE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF SLOW SITE SPEED
#1 - Decreased conversion rates: Slow website speed can have a significant impact on conversion rates. People abandon a site that takes too long to load, leading to lower conversion rates. Here are some interesting site speed facts Shopify recently shared:
- According to Deloitte, with a 0.1 second increase in site speed, retail conversions increased by 8.4%.
- Additionally, a study by Google found that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load.
Studies have consistently shown that website speed directly affects user experience, with slower load times leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement.
Even a short delay of just a few seconds can significantly influence conversion rates, potentially causing missed sales chances and a decrease in overall revenue.
#2 - Lower search engine rankings: Slow website speed can negatively impact search engine optimization (SEO), making the site show up further down the list on search results pages.
Google has stated that a website should load within 2-3 seconds, and any slower than that can result in lost traffic and customers.
Slow website speed can lead to decreased visibility and lower search engine rankings, making it harder for potential customers to find the site.
#3 - Reduced website traffic: Slow site speed can reduce website traffic in two ways.
- First, as mentioned, lower Google Search Engine Results Page placements will deliver less traffic.
- Second, as the site performs slowly, users are likelier to leave and go elsewhere to find what they want. This can be measured by looking at the average time on site metric.
For e-commerce sites, Amazon sets the standard for fast load times. Studies have shown that a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load will lose more than 50% of mobile users.
#4 - Negative impact on user experience: Critical to our discussion is the obvious fact that slow website speed negatively impacts the user experience. Studies have shown that 40% of online users leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load, and 47% of online shoppers expect an online retail web page to load in under two seconds. Users expect fast and responsive websites, and if a website fails to meet their expectations, they will likely abandon it and seek alternatives. Slow website speed can decrease customer loyalty and trust, ultimately impacting business revenue.
#5 - Poor Advertising Performance: When you send paid traffic to a slow website - for all the reasons mentioned above, the results are going to suffer.
And if your site doesn't perform well, then your ads aren't going to perform as well as they could, thereby wasting money. This has been well documented.
Sorry to be so direct, but maybe it's time to stop blaming your Ad Agency for poor results and fix your site speed!
A Simple Solution
Because our clients need this work done, and it's technical and confusing, we recently began offering site speed management in two ways. First, for all our web management clients - they get this service for free as part of our work in support of their sites. Second, for those who simply want us to conduct the speed optimization activities - we charge a simple 1-time payment for one year of support.
To learn more about how we can work together, simply set up an appointment here.
Get Your Free Site Speed Audit: As mentioned, we can help you determine the speed of your site from multiple "sources of truth" and explain how we can help.
Get A Free 30 Minute Consultation When You Apply For Personal Coaching: As part of the coaching application process we offer a free 30 minute consultation. It is our opportunity to meet each other and discover together if coaching is a good fit. If you're ready to get our personal help. Learn more here.
If you'd like additional training and coaching to achieve your Shopify goals, consider applying for our coaching program today!
Grateful for the chance to be of help,
Jason & Kyle
