How your performance on Google can improve your ecommerce

Those who work with sales and ecommerce must stay up to date in order to achieve the best results and performance in relation to Google algorithms, and also to reach more people and convert them into customers. To facilitate this work, it is necessary to pay attention to verifying and optimizing the speed of website pages, as these actions directly affect ecommerce results. Learn how your performance on Google can improve your brand positioning.

  

User experience

 

The loading speed of website pages greatly impacts the purchase decision of users, and it is one of the performance criteria analyzed by Google to rank websites in their search results. Simply put, having an appealing design or good content is no use if a page is slow. Light and fast websites tend to stay at the top of the search results and capture more attention of the users who are browsing because they respond in real time, and this impacts the user’s decision.

 

To get a clearer idea, a study by Kissmetrics, a company founded by Digital Marketing guru Neil Patel, points out that a one-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. This means that if an ecommerce website sells the equivalent of R$100,000 per day, a one-second delay in page load time can cause it to lose 2.5 million sales per year. This means that a fast-loading website is key to increasing online sales.

  

Slow website speed increases bounce rate and decreases conversions

 

According to the research mentioned above, up to 40% of users leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load. This means that if your ecommerce website takes three seconds or longer to load, this delay could be directly affecting your profit, as almost half of your potential website traffic is lost.

 

If a customer goes through this problem, it will generate great dissatisfaction and they will hardly buy from your ecommerce again. A one-second delay can reduce user satisfaction by up to 16%, according to research by Aberdeen Group. In addition, customers who negatively evaluate a store or say they are dissatisfied with their website performance are unlikely to buy from it again, and they might also mention the problem to other people, causing a reverse effect to word-of-mouth marketing.

 

If you believe three seconds can’t have such an impact on the results of a website, it is time to change this mindset. Below, we explain how we can improve your ecommerce results to increase sales and profits.

 

How to improve the speed of your website

 

It is possible to parameterize the speed and performance levels of a website based on a data comparison that analyzes the page load time and its resources and provides suggestions for improving the load time. This analysis is performed by means of a score.

 

The score ranges from 0 to 100, and it is the result of the relationship between the performance of the website and the “best practices manual” of the hosting platform, which addresses usability, user experience and other parameters. This score represents how much the page needs to be improved. In other words, the closer your website is to “Google standards”, the closer it will be to the top of the ranking, which results in increased chances of conversion and sales.

 

A good score is 80 or higher. Average scores range from 60 to 79, and poor scores range from 0 to 59. To achieve the maximum score, it is advisable to follow some recommendations, such as the ones listed below.

 

Learn how to best use cache

One of the main elements analyzed in this study is the amount of resources the browser needs to assimilate on a website, such as images, scripts and fonts. They can be stored in the cache, which acts as the memory of the browser. This way, the browser will load all elements only once. Thus, when the user navigates to another page of the same website, the browser performs an action similar to “restoring memory” and retrieves the necessary loading information from the cache, thus improving the performance of the website. The service must be performed by a specialist, as it requires changes directly in the website configuration.

 

Organization of the HTML code

The organization of the HTML code determines how servers will read the information and how long it will take for it to be displayed to the user. Duplicate codes or tags purposely used out of place hinder performance. Therefore, it is very important that the HTML code follows Google’s standards, and we perform this work with security for your company and data.

 

Resource compression improves ecommerce performance

One of the most used resources in ecommerce are the images, which are precisely one of the heaviest elements in the loading of websites. For this reason, we recommend compressing them. This way, the performance of your ecommerce will improve considerably, and the page will comply with one of the key points presented by PageSpeed Insights (PSI).

 

AMP is an important tool

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is another option offered by Google to ensure fast loading of website pages on mobile devices, such as mobile phones and tablets. It allows the website to adapt to the format of the device by using a more basic design and adapted speed, offering a better user experience than a desktop version would.

 

After applying these changes, your ecommerce results will surprise you. Follow the evolution of technologies to get the best results in sales and stand out in the market. Make this transformation with the help of marketing and technology experts.