Website Performance Matters
A while back we introduced several DIY marketing tools that linked to a quick website performance test focusing on the page speed. Businesses are using tools like this to get a quick idea about how fast their websites are.
Also in an earlier blog that we posted, we stated that “your website speed sells!” based on our data that correlates a website’s load speed with key factors contributing to the power of the site’s ability to generate sales or leads.
In other words, a high-speed and high-performance website is more likely to obtain
- Higher search ranking,
- Positive brand impression,
- Better user experience,
- Higher conversions.
Therefore, all we need to do is to keep improving our site speed until it is perfect, right?
Yes and No.
Your Website Works Against Your Competition’s
Business owners who have tried a website performance speed tool often raised questions like the following.
(Real questions from two of our clients:)
From our client A: “my website has a speed score of 85. Is it good enough for it to rank high on Google?”
From our client B: “my website has a speed score of 59. Is it good enough for it to rank high on Google?”
Be noted that our clients A and B are in different lines of business.
Assuming all other SEO factors being equal for them, do you think client A, who has a higher speed score, is having a higher search rank than client B, who has a relatively lower speed score?
That is not the case, for these two clients of ours!
Why not?
Let’s take a closer look. Client A’s major competitors all have speed scores higher than 85 but none of client B’s major competitors has a speed score higher than 59.
With all things considered, it turns out that our client A, with a relatively high site speed score of 85, still needs to further speed up their website to go over the 90 score point in order to gain a higher search ranking, due to the fact that their competitors are running faster websites.
In contrast, our client B, with a relatively lower speed score of 59, is already enjoying a high search ranking over their competition. From our analysis, one key factor for client B’s success in search ranking, luckily, is that their major competitors are having lower site speed scores.
This proves again that for a business, you are competing with your competition but not with the whole world.
For client B, the higher speed score of client A’s does not matter.
For Google, it has no choice but to rank client B’s website above client B’s competition when a user searches for a keyword related to client B’s line of business.
Monitor and Improve Your Website Over Competition
In terms of website performance tuning, if you have a deep pocket, go ahead and get a perfect page speed score.
But if you are like the most of us out there, a more economical and meaningful way to go about website performance optimization is to compare yours with your competitors’ and use the insight learned to direct your site performance work.
We achieved this by first helping our clients track their website performance in relation to their competitors’. With the comparative data, we deliver monthly or weekly reports that contain
- Website performance scores of the client’s and its competition’s,
- Competitive analysis in website performance differences, and
- Website improvement actions, prioritized by their impact on how quickly our client will beat the competition in website performance.
Now we are opening up this service for all businesses, big and small.
Remember, it is important to make your website work as hard as you do. With targeted tuning, your website should run faster than your competition.
Park your website with us for a free competitive check-up.
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