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Why You’re Losing Customers, Visitors and Sales

How to fix a slow loading website that’s costing you customers, visitors and sales!

You are here: Home / Latest News / Why You’re Losing Customers, Visitors and Sales
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Did you know, the longer it takes your website to load, the more likely that your bounce rate will rise? On top of this fact, Google, Bing and Yahoo will direct more visitors to faster loading web pages than to slower ones.
If your website takes longer than two seconds to load, it means visitors are more likely to leave than to stay. Sadly, if you’re running a sales page or an ecommerce website, you’re potentially losing customers and sales!
The good news is, you can fix a slow-loading website and I spent this past weekend tweaking two of my websites (one is an ecommerce store) and the results are amazing!

Before and After Scores

I measured the page speed for BonnieGean.com and received these results:

Before Tweaking Page Speed
Before Tweaking Page Speed
I was surprised to learn the scores were so poor. Page load time was estimated at 3.95 seconds! That’s almost double the time that a visitor expects to wait for a website to load!
These scores were totally unacceptable to me and I knew I had to fix them if I wanted to reduce my bounce rate and keep visitors around longer on the blog. So I meandered off to find a solution.
Luckily, I found one! After running through the entire course and making the appropriate changes, I tested the website again and here’s the result:
After Tweaking Page Speed
After Tweaking Page Speed
Not only did I reduce the page load time from a 3.95 to a 1.34, the changes reduced the overall page size and the total number of requests the domain made to load the page. A significant improvement!

How to Test Your Website

If you want to see where your website stands in terms of loading time, check out your scores. The website I used was http://www.gtmetrix.com
All you need to do is enter your full domain into the text box and hit the GO button. The site will analyze the page speed of your website and report the results.
You’ll know at a glance whether you need to tweak anything! If your site takes longer than two seconds to load, you’re losing visitors and no doubt increasing your bounce rate, too!

The Solution

What did I use to fix my website and gain such drastic results? I purchased Page Speed Mechanics from Lisa Allen for a mere $17 and went through her entire course in one day – for both of my websites!
She offers step by step tutorials (video and PDF sheets) so if you don’t care for video, you can still take the course and fix a slow-loading website!
Later on during the week I’ll do a complete walk-through review of the program, if you prefer to wait for that, but if you truly want to speed up your website, I wouldn’t dawdle.
Get Page Speed Mechanics – you have nothing to lose but a slow loading website. 🙂
How important is it to you that your website loads fast? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Thanks for reading,
– Bonnie
P.S. Did you enjoy this message? If so, please share it with your friends so they can benefit from schmoozing. Then, if you want to get more messages like this one, connect with me via my social links below or hop aboard my notification list. I would like to keep in touch.

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About Bonnie Gean

Bonnie Gean is a full-time writer, marketer, and entrepreneur with over 33 years of experience. She shares the goods on building community and helps you overcome technical challenges associated with operating an online business.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Debra Jason

    July 23, 2013 at 9:20 am

    I did click the YSlow tab and didn’t understand, that’s why I asked.
    Thanks.
    🙂
    D

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 23, 2013 at 3:03 pm

      The Page Speed is relevant to what “Google” rules are in regards to load time and the YSlow speed is relevant to the rules that Yahoo sets forth.
      The difference between the two are the rules being addressed during the scan.
      Hope that helps. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Debra Jason

    July 18, 2013 at 10:52 pm

    Looks interesting, but what does YSlow mean?
    Thanks Ms. G!

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 23, 2013 at 4:26 am

      If you click the YSlow tab it shows you what it refers to Debra. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Joy Healey

    July 18, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    Hi Bonnie
    Your post must have gone viral – I went to measure my own site and…
    “There are 220 jobs ahead of you in the queue, estimated wait 10 minutes.”
    LOL – bit ironic that really.
    But thanks for a useful resource. I’ll wait and see what it says!
    Joy

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 23, 2013 at 4:12 am

      Wow, that’s a lot of queued people ahead of you!
      How did it turn out? Does your site need a tweak or not?

      Reply
      • Joy Healey

        July 23, 2013 at 8:30 am

        It timed out! I did it again and it did need tweaks, but to be honest I’m so fed up of spending my time on technical tweaks instead of marketing my services that it’ll have to wait! LOL
        Useful tool though, if I ever find myself with nothing to do!

        Reply
        • Bonnie Gean

          July 23, 2013 at 3:07 pm

          I understand the being fed up with technical stuff, but I prefer knowing that my sites are loading as fast as they can be so visitors aren’t getting miffed and leaving.
          I prefer to have them stay, so I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make my sites load super fast!

          Reply
  4. Jan Kearney

    July 17, 2013 at 5:34 am

    I bought that course, think Sue recommended it – as yet not had chance to go through it. MLBO needs a major clean up, so thought I’d do it on my site and see what the recommendations and improvements will be. Now just give me a couple of hours to even look at my stuff and I’ll be on it!
    It’s on my to-do list this week – glad it worked for you, means I didn’t buy a dud 🙂

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 17, 2013 at 7:15 pm

      Well then missy, sounds to me like you need a little BOOT action. LOL
      I’m surprised you’re holding off on getting this done since you work with WordPress on a daily basis. I would think YOU would know the importance of fixing a slow page load. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Sara

    July 16, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    Yikes, I knew I was slow but I just about failed with a D. I have images and Linkys on my site which slow it down. Plus on load it loads fb tw pinterest and googleplus.
    The suggestions are jibberish to me so I may have to invest in your little class.

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 16, 2013 at 9:41 pm

      I would venture to say that there are many bloggers who aren’t aware that their websites need a tweak or two. It’s a good thing that you’re learning early on so that you can avoid problems later. 😛

      Reply
  6. Linda Ursin

    July 16, 2013 at 4:36 am

    You think you got bad grades… I got an F 😀 I do have some concerns about their suggestions though. It says I don’t serve scaled images, even if I actually do. It recommends using a caching plugin, although those are notorious for breaking sites and being incompatible with other plugins. I’ll try the gzip-compression, even though I’ve had less than good experiences with it in the past. I do suspect that the greatest culprit for my slow loading is my background. I might be able to make the file smaller.

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 17, 2013 at 7:33 pm

      I use a caching system and it doesn’t break the site as long as it’s set up correctly. 🙂
      The scaled images that YOU make are inside the media folder, but the theme itself probably has images that aren’t scaled.
      Additionally, the images inside your media folder can be smushed, too – making them even smaller and loading faster.
      I would think there’s plenty of things that can be done with any website to speed up the process. Besides GZIP compression there’s another type of depression that can be incorporated too, through the htaccess file. All this is inside the course.

      Reply
      • Linda Ursin

        July 18, 2013 at 2:13 am

        I tried caching earlier, and set it up right. Didn’t speed up much though, and it was incompatible with two of my other plugins. I think my issues are more image related, so I’ve added the EWWW plugin to reduce the file size of my pictures. What the test apparently means, is that three pictures are resized in CSS, and not uploaded in that size. I’ve fixed that now, and my grade changed to D. I’ll set up compression next.

        Reply
        • Bonnie Gean

          July 23, 2013 at 4:30 am

          How’s the site loading now, Linda?

          Reply
          • Linda Ursin

            July 23, 2013 at 4:32 am

            Better, but only a B. There’s no way to make it any faster now, since they’re slowed by routers in between.

          • Bonnie Gean

            July 23, 2013 at 4:57 am

            A “B” score is definitely better than what you had when you first checked! I have a “B” score on one of my sites and I don’t mind considering it was a 69% – D when I first checked!
            Now it’s an 87% – B, which works for me!

          • Linda Ursin

            July 23, 2013 at 5:26 am

            B beats and F, true. I’m at B-85% with my homepage and B-83% with my blog.

          • Bonnie Gean

            July 31, 2013 at 10:55 am

            The “B” score is much better than an F 🙂

          • Linda Ursin

            July 31, 2013 at 3:34 pm

            Yes, it is 🙂 But being an A student, I find it hard to settle for a B 😀

          • Bonnie Gean

            August 6, 2013 at 9:07 am

            I know all about being an “A” student, but trust me sweetie – the time you spent trying to get that “A” is probably time better spent doing something else. Leave the perfectionism in the box. 🙂

          • Linda Ursin

            August 6, 2013 at 9:14 am

            That’s just it, I didn’t work for it… I more or less did it anyway

          • Bonnie Gean

            September 25, 2013 at 5:11 pm

            LOL (shaking my head).

  7. Tamsin

    July 15, 2013 at 9:03 pm

    Hi Bonnie
    I’ve been waiting for this! Thank you! I ran my websites through that tool and the results are shocking to say the least. Looks like I’ve got some work ahead of me ……….. will let you know the results 🙂

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 16, 2013 at 6:52 am

      Yes, your page speed needs tweaking! (I glanced at it because you were the one who originally asked how to speed up your site.)
      You’re going to love Lisa’s course!
      Let me know how it goes!

      Reply
  8. Jodene

    July 15, 2013 at 1:12 pm

    Wow! That’s a big difference. Thank you for sharing what you did. I think I might take your advice! 🙂
    ~ Jodene

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 16, 2013 at 9:59 pm

      Hopefully many others will take the advice too. It’s never a bad thing having a faster website and since the top 3 search engines like faster loading pages, it’s to your advantage!

      Reply
  9. George Nieves

    July 15, 2013 at 12:50 pm

    Hi Bonnie,
    Great post. I ran my site and it does appear I have some tweaking to do too. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 16, 2013 at 9:58 pm

      I often wondered how many visitors left before my site loaded, now that I know it took almost 4 seconds to finish loading. Well, now that it’s fixed I won’t have to wonder anymore. 😉

      Reply
  10. Stacy

    July 15, 2013 at 11:11 am

    I don’t have a business, but you’re right! If a web site takes too long to load I usually give up and try another site for a similar business.

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 15, 2013 at 11:23 am

      Anyone who loves Toby Keith has got the smarts to start a business, Stacy! 🙂 Any reason why you haven’t started one already?

      Reply
  11. Shawn

    July 15, 2013 at 11:00 am

    Great info. I tested my site and it looks like I have some work to do.

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 15, 2013 at 11:16 am

      Girlfriend, it’s so nice to see you return to the blog. When are you going to add a gravatar of your lovely face to the mix, too? 🙂
      Need to know how to do that? Check out this post:
      http://www.bonniegean.com/how-to-create-a-gravatar/
      The PSM course I bought was truly worth the money spent. I am so much happier now knowing the site loads in less than 2 seconds. The great thing is – now I know how to fix every other new site I create, too!

      Reply
  12. Maura Raffensperger

    July 15, 2013 at 10:51 am

    Going to run that load time report right now! Great info. Will definitely return. Glad i found you thru #UBC. Love your tag line, BTW.

    Reply
    • Bonnie Gean

      July 15, 2013 at 11:17 am

      Hopefully you’ll find that you don’t need to tweak anything, but if it happens that you do – you’ll love Lisa’s course to help you get it done!
      Thanks Maura… so many people have responded to the tag line, it wasn’t a hard decision to keep it there. 🙂

      Reply

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