Why the Fate of Your Website Will Be Decided in Less Time Than it Takes You to Read This Sentence

Speed kills on the web.

The same people who a decade ago would wait patiently through the screeching greeting of a dial-up modem are now frustrated when the homepage of CNN doesn’t refresh as quickly as a wiper blade across a windshield.

Consider the following: 

• The human brain senses delay after 0. 1 seconds (This is when people start to notice “slow”).

• 75% of sites load in less than 5 seconds. (The benchmark for “acceptable slow” is created).

• 57% of people will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. (Impatience kicks in: Game over).

Your organization won’t get your 15 minutes of fame if you don’t win the first 5 seconds.

And if the statistics aren’t sobering enough, think about these 5 reasons your digital efforts should focus on feeling the need – the need for speed.

1. The mobile revolution demands speed

As screens and devices get smaller, expectations for what said device can deliver get higher. Over is the era of device novelty where people were willing to wait for the little loading bar to painstakingly tiptoe from left to right across their screen because the eventual reward (the content) would be so novel that tardiness was forgiven.

Now people want to be able to sit on their couch and figure out in a few seconds who the NBA MVP was in 1994 (David Robinson) with their smart phone. And increasingly, those same people want to find a local shop that sells a replica jersey from that same year – while they are driving there (though we certainly don’t endorse the behavior).

2. Search engines are speed freaks

It is estimated that at least 1% of all search queries have results which are affected in part by the speed of a site. In other words, all other things (content, inbound link profile, etc.) being equal, the faster site wins the ranking at least 1% of the time. I imagine that number is only going to grow.

Ever notice how Google shows you how “fast” their results load? If the search giant is focused on it, we should be, too.

3. Speed is a byproduct of simplicity

People like when things are made easy for them. Hey, it’s why the Staples Easy Button has caught on as a mini-pop-culture-phenomenon of its own: it speaks to our very human nature.

Easier is better because it is faster. But this also plays out in the real world:

• In a now famous study, researchers found that people who were exposed to a smaller menu of jam in a grocery store were more likely to purchase jam than those who were exposed to a larger list (debunking the notion that “more” means “better”).

• Siegel and Gale’s Global Brand Simplicity Index found that people are willing to pay up more for products that seemed “simpler” to them.

While websites of today are less likely to be plagued with way too many giant images and clumsily loading content (though that still happens), they still run into the problem of including too many calls to dynamic content (like embedded Twitter streams) that slow down the overall load speed of a site.

Boil down your core content offering to your audience and simplify your site. The collective patience level of the Internet will thank you. (Don’t believe me? In a 2009 study, people ranked load speed as the most important factor that impacted their browsing experience).

4. Speed paves the way for engagement

It’s a small miracle to get someone to arrive at your site (with all the competitive sources they could turn to instead). Making them wait once they’re there is like begging them to click the already tempting “back” button. The logic is simple: people are more likely to read a page that loaded quickly, they are more likely to share content that loaded quickly, and they are more likely to click another link on a site where pages seem to load quickly.

(To top it off, Google conducted research that found that users who experience a delay in site performance are less likely to take another action on a site.)

There are enough reasons for people to not visit your site. Don’t make speed one of them.

(For resources on how to boost your website’s load speed, click here.)