How fast does your store load on your mobile device? No, I mean how fast does your store really load on your mobile device?
You may think your store loads quickly, but have you ever asked Google if it’s fast enough?
Chances are, you and the search giant have a different definition of exactly what “fast” is.
So, let’s take a moment and run your store through a speed test. I’m going to give you separate instructions for each scenario:
Scenario 1: You have a standard non-responsive/adaptive website or a responsive/adaptive designed website that does not automatically redirect to a separate mobile website such as m.yourdomain.com.
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- Go to https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/ and enter the URL of your store and follow the prompts to completion.
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Scenario 2: You have a standard non-responsive/adaptive website or a responsive/adaptive designed website that does automatically redirect to a separate mobile website such as m.yourdomain.com.
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- Go to https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/ and enter the URL of your store and follow the prompts to completion.
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After you run your URL through the Google Speed Test, request a copy of your report and take a good look at your results.
I just ran a Yahoo! Store that fits “Scenario 1” through the speed test and the results below were displayed for me. (For privacy sake, I’m not disclosing the URL or name of the store I used for this example.)
As you scroll through the recommendations from Google, you may find suggestions such as compressing large images, reducing the size of CSS and JavaScript, and more. Many of these recommendations can be implemented by Your Store Wizards, or a developer of your choice, while others, due to platform limitations, cannot.
One very important recommendation within the report you received from Google after running the test, is… “AMP your page.” This is something we can do for you to dramatically reduce the load time of your site on mobile devices.
Serving mobile users an AMP version of your website is a top recommendation from Google and one that each store owner should embrace and implement before the holiday season. By “AMPing your page,” you’re serving mobile searchers a lightweight, yet feature-rich, version of your store specifically designed to load quickly and provide an optimal mobile shopping experience.
The next step in this exercise is to scroll down on that Google page to the section called “Evaluate the impact of a faster site.” Here’s where you estimate how just a few seconds shaved off load time can lead to more sales.
Let’s plug in these numbers from that same Yahoo! Store I used in my original test:
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- Start off by entering our original speed number, for the sake of this test I’m feeling a bit generous so instead of 7.9 let’s round down to 7.
- Next, for our monthly visitors, enter 27,000.
- For conversion rate, enter 2%.
- For average order value, enter $35.
- Finally, change the seconds from 3.5 to 1.5 – which a properly optimized page should be able to load in.
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In this example, speeding up the site by implementing Google’s recommendations could possibly generate an additional $28k in annual revenue.
The 1.5 seconds used in this example is on the fast end of the scale. Go ahead and take your site’s original speed and start decreasing the load time by 1 second and see how the dollar value changes.
The infographic below, produced by Google, shows how much the probablbility of a visitor bouncing from your site increases as each second ticks by.
As we approach the holiday, all of us at Your Store Wizards are focused on one thing – making this YOUR best eCommerce year EVER!
Now that you ran the test on your website, plugged different numbers into the speed calculator, and tallied up how much money you’re leaving on the table due to a slow website, there’s one more step to take.
Fill out the form below and let’s talk.
We’ll go over the results of your Google test with you and discuss recommendations on how we can help speed up your site. We’ll suggest changes not only to your main site but will give you options on what can be done to help out mobile users as well.
The test you just ran your site through is free, and so is talking to us. So what have you got to lose?
Scott Sanfilippo
General Manager, YSW
Scott Sanfilippo began his eCommerce journey in 1994 by co-founding one of the Internet’s first online retailers, TheFerretStore.com, which was acquired by PetCo in 2006. In 2001, he co-founded the eCommerce design and marketing firm Solid Cactus, which was acquired by web.com in 2009. Today, Scott is the General Manager of Your Store Wizards and lives in Delray Beach, FL. Scott can be contacted at scott@yourstorewizards.com.