Faster, higher, stronger

We are sure you know this Olympic moto. However, this article is about site speed.
What is your opinion: should it be fast or not?
Actually, it must be fast. Site speed is a key factor of e-commerce success. If your site is slow, you will lose your clients. They just will go to other faster one. Poor site performance reflects badly on your company image.

Such factors as conversion rate, search engine rankings and other things depends on site speed.
Below you will find statistics. 

• 80% of users said: a slow loading website was more frustrating than a temporarily down website (Eggplant – 2018)
• 33% Stress level up when content loading is delayed by more than 6 seconds. And this is even more than waiting in queue at the retail store. (Ericsson – 2016) 
• An 8.4% increase in conversion rate for retail sites came from a 0.1-second improvement of mobile site speed (Google – 2020)
• 9.1% more customers added items to their basket when mobile site speed increased by just 0.1 seconds (Google – 2020)

As you see, this data proves our words.
Earlier we wrote article about optimization according to GooglePageSpeed, you can read it here https://habr.com/ru/sandbox/151874/
But pay attention: tools for measurement (including GooglePageSpeed) are not 100% accurate. Today they can show this rate, tomorrow other. 
So let’s look at the ways how to improve site speed.

3 TIPS to speed up your site

Images.

1. Size
It is the easiest way to speed up your site.
Yes, Images should be of a good quality. But it is not a good idea to load 1 or more MBs. Concentrate on 150 kB. There might be a minor loss in quality but it is inessential. Moreover, it will make your site faster. 
2. Lazy-loading.  There is no use to load all images simultaneously. It can slow your site productivity.
That’s why it is a good idea to use lazy-loading for images. In such case image does not download until it becomes visible to the client. And surely it makes your site much faster.

Fonts

As we see above, images are important for the speed, fonts are also of large importance.
Users need to see the price and description as soon as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes it does not load quickly due to fonts.
The main reason: the usage of special external fonts. (as these fonts are not default for the users’ computers). The solution for this task is simple: provide a fallback font that will be shown without any delay and then will be changed to the desired font.”

Apps

We are not against the apps. Unfortunately, they can influence the site speed significantly.
That’s why you always need to analyze the necessity of the apps. You need to have balance. Always bear in mind: the long term consequences of setting up any apps. Estimate all pros and cons before.

Don’t forget about one more fact, your site can’t be faster than the theme speed. You add content, images, apps, as a result, the speed will even slow down.  
Don’t waste money: do not lose your clients due to low site speed. The customers won’t wait, they’re impatient, they will go to other companies. 
 
To sum up, nowadays it is crucial to make your site fast. Don’t forget, changes to Google Search ranking are coming in May 2021, site speed will be really important. 
Take our recommendations, ask if have questions. 
Good Luck!