What is website performance and how can your business unlock it?
To unlock website results we’ll first help you understand what website performance is. Us folk at Guerilla use the phrase, ‘Core Performance Metrics’, which can be split into three main areas – Speed, Engagement and Compatibility.
Speed:
Nothing turns website visitors away faster than a slow load time and in an age where every second counts, your business cannot afford to keep people waiting.
The Golden Rule of website speed is said to be about 4 seconds, this is the point most people give-up on a website and go elsewhere, maybe back to Google for a different search, a search that will most certainly lead to them opting for a competitor.
If your website is taking 4 seconds or longer to load then you’ve got problems. The trick is for your website to load in around 2-3 seconds to keep visitors engaged.
Optimising your website images, the number of file requests and implementing caching techniques are ways you can boost your website speed performance for maximum results.
Is your business international? How quickly does your website load in each country you operate in?
Put your website speed to the test using this free online tool by the team at Pingdom, simply enter your website address into the search bar – https://tools.pingdom.com
Engagement:
Does your website feature comment boards, newsletter subscription forms, social media and live chat widgets, contact forms, phone numbers and how do these perform in terms of generating interactions, leads, shares and likes from your website visitors and potential customers?
The results that can be generated through your website are limitless but to get there a solid digital strategy is required to pick the key solutions, at the right time, helping you to grow and adapt.
Measuring engagement can be difficult if you don’t use social media, comment boards, newsletters or ask how people found you when speaking to them on the phone or email. Google Analytics however is a fantastic tool for shedding light on how much traffic you are receiving, where the traffic is coming from mixed with behavioural metrics to show what they are doing on your website.
It is essential you regularly evaluate the performance of your website and adapt accordingly based on real data and results.
Want to get insights in your Google Analytics but just don’t know how? Either get us to do it or use one of the fantastic reporting templates available via the Google Solutions Gallery – https://analytics.google.com/analytics/gallery/
Compatibility:
‘The Times They Are-a Changin’
The world of internet browser software can change on a daily basis with some automatically installing their updates – is your website being updated in-line with these changes if any were to cause problems for your visitors?
Not only are the internet browsers updated but the Operating System are too, for each of the devices available across desktops, tablets and mobile.
That is quite a lot of change happening on a regular basis, if your website isn’t kept up-to-date it can become incompatible in a relatively quick period of time.
Do you check your website in the latest version of all popular browsers?
Do you check your website using the latest version of all popular Operating Systems in the latest version of all popular browsers?
Do you check your website on the latest devices, using the latest version of all popular Operating Systems in the latest version of all popular browsers?
We do this as standard for all the work we carry out and for clients with a website maintenance or support plan in place.
Being compatible with the latest software is one thing but what about being compatible with the greatest devices? It is paramount that in today’s competitive digital marketplace your business has a well-designed, fully responsive, mobile friendly website. This is not just in terms of SEO results but also from a customer satisfaction and brand perception view point.
You can test your website responsiveness and how it looks across desktop, tablet and mobile – https://material.io/tools/resizer/
In Summary:
The keys to unlocking website performance results for your business is through ‘Core Website Performance Metrics’ – Speed, Engagement and Compatibility.
We would love to have a chat over the phone or email to get your digital performance strategy in place today – the best way to unlock the results available to your business.
Please contact us on 0191 261 9799 or email digital@guerilla.co.uk
