Why (Website) Performance Matters

Performance is a measurement of how well something (or someone) does in completing an objective or activity. Performance is the heartbeat of success.

The value of a performance focus touches our lives daily. From following your favourite sports team in which every aspect of performance is recorded and analysed. To our personal lives; how your child is doing at school, or your own performance at work. And all the way to business outcomes such as analysing the performance of that new product release, or that of your latest marketing campaign. We are all obsessed with how things perform for the one reason; that we want to make improvements. We want to be better tomorrow than we were today.

Spoiler alert. Your website performance is no different. A high-performing website can mean the difference between capturing a customer’s attention or losing them to the competition in the blink of an eye. We live in an age of immediacy, where users expect lightning-fast experiences. A slow, sluggish website can cost millions in lost revenue and missed opportunities. Performance isn’t just a technical metric; it’s a reflection of your business’s readiness to serve customers efficiently and effectively.

We are all customers. And we know that customers abandon slow websites just as fans lose interest in a team that doesn’t perform. It’s no coincidence that champions in both business and sport are the ones who focus on every small gain because those add up to winning results.

At Niteco we are performance obsessives. So much so that we have invested heavily into our own proprietary performance tooling, to keep us at the very cutting edge. Why? Because we know that it is critical in making a difference. We know from experience. We know from data-driven insight. We know because we focus on it to significantly improve outcomes for our customers. A high-performing website is not just a technical advantage - it's a competitive necessity. Whether you’re an eCommerce giant or a content-driven brochure site, the performance of your website directly impacts user experience, SEO rankings, and ultimately, your bottom line. But don't take my word for it.

Faster Websites = Better User Experience (UX)

Studies show that user patience online is incredibly low. A delay of even a few seconds can result in a significant drop in engagement. According to Google, 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. This means that if your site is slow, over half of your potential visitors may leave before even seeing your content or products.

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Performance Directly Impacts SEO Rankings

Google’s algorithms are increasingly focusing on user experience metrics like site speed and mobile optimisation. Page speed has been a ranking factor for Google Search since 2018. With the advent of Core Web Vitals (May 2020), a set of metrics that Google uses to evaluate website performance and user experience, it is now more critical than ever.

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Boost Conversions and Sales (or leads)

For eCommerce businesses, even a slight delay can mean thousands in lost sales. Studies show that improving site speed by just one second can lead to a measurable increase in conversion rates. Amazon calculated that a tiny 100ms increase in page load time led to a 1% decrease in revenue (today that equates to $3.8 billion annual revenue)

Or looking at that another way, a 1-second delay in page load can result in a -7% reduction in conversions.

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"I don't sell anything, so performance and conversion doesn't matter to me"

Conversion rates don't only apply to eCommerce businesses. Any website with a call to action, completing a form or contact us page, or downloading a file. Your goal is to get your user to convert, to take action, to get in touch, to share their details, to create a lead for your sales and marketing teams. Better performance will result in longer session durations, increased dwell time, more interactions, and an overall stronger brand impression.

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Mobile Optimisation is Crucial

More than 50% of global website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimised for mobile performance - speed, responsiveness, and accessibility - you risk losing a large chunk of your audience. Mobile-first indexing by Google has raised the stakes further, meaning your website's mobile version is what primarily determines its SEO ranking.

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Differentiating in a Competitive Marketplace

In a crowded market, performance is something that too many businesses overlook. Companies often spend vast amounts on marketing to drive traffic to their site, but if the site itself is slow, unresponsive, or poorly optimised, that investment is wasted. A fast, optimised website ensures that your marketing dollars are not squandered and provides a smoother path to conversion.

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Website performance is often seen as a trust indicator. A website that loads quickly and functions well reflects positively on your business and builds user confidence. If your aim is to position your business as a forward-thinking, customer-centric leader, you have to pay attention to this.

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1. The?average page load speed?among sites ranking on page one of Google is 1.65 seconds [1]
2. A page load time on?mobile?of?10 seconds?increases the bounce rate by +123%?when?compared to a one-second loading speed. [2a] With more than 50% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, optimising for mobile performance is critical [2b]
3. Google Consumer Insights?also found that?53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page if it takes?more than 3 seconds?to load. [3]
4. Website conversion rates drop by -4.42%?with?each second of load time?that goes by, between zero and five seconds, according to an experiment by Portent. [4]
5. Almost?70% of consumers?have said that?page speed impacts their willingness to buy?from an online retailer, a page speed report found. [5]
6. The average website takes around?8.6 seconds?to load on mobile devices and 2.5 seconds on desktop. [6]
7. The top 10 ecommerce websites in the US have an average page load time of?1.96 seconds. [7]
8. Pages that take only two seconds to load have an?average bounce rate of 6%, but pages that take five seconds to load have an average bounce rate of 38%. [8]
9. A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that takes 5 seconds. Moreover, the conversion rate is 5x higher for a site that loads in 1 second versus 10 seconds? [9a; 9b]
10. In a survey of 750 consumers, 70% of users?say that an online retailer’s site speed has an impact on how willing they are to buy from that retailer. [10]
11. 79% of shoppers?who have trouble with site performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again. [11]
12. For every second of additional page load time, conversion rates decrease by?an average of -2.11%. [12] ?
13. A 1-second delay on an eCommerce site that makes $100,000 per day, could?cost $2.5 million per year?in lost sales [13]
14. The BBC?found that for every extra second of page load time, 10% of users will leave. [14]
15. Vodafone increased sales by 8% by optimizing LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) in their Core Web Vitals scores [15]
16. A 1-second delay can reduce page views by 11%, decrease customer satisfaction by 16%, and slash conversion rates by 7% [16]

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Conclusion: Invest in Performance to skyrocket your business

Website performance isn’t just a nice-to-have—it's a critical business strategy. Whether you’re an eCommerce site looking to boost sales or a brand site aiming to provide information and build trust, investing in speed, optimisation, and mobile responsiveness will help differentiate you in a highly competitive market.

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High-performing websites =

? better user experiences

? higher search rankings + more organic traffic

? increased conversions

? better brand trust and customer centricity

In a digital-first world, your website is your front door - make sure it opens quickly and smoothly.