Every business wants their website to deliver a great user experience, regardless of their industry or niche. A website that delights new or returning customers is likely to perform better than one that does not. As your buyers' behavior on the web continues to evolve, you can't afford to overlook the importance of website load speed.

Here's why load speed is still a bigger issue than you might think, along with some of the factors that can affect your site's speed.

Today's Visitors are Impatient

When you get to a website that takes forever to load, how does that make you feel? If you're like most people then you probably experience an emotion related to anger or frustration.

And when you're on a website that makes you feel angry or frustrated, do you usually stay on that website? Probably not.

Instead, you'd go to another website, right?

The people who are researching your products and services online right now are no different. They don't have the patience to sit around waiting for a slow website to show up on their smartphone or desktop; they want everything immediately. The longer you make them wait, the more interest they lose in you.

In a 2012 study by Google, most smartphone users were willing to wait up to 5 seconds for a website to load before moving on to another website. Do you think people are more or less patient today than they were back in 2012?

Website Load Speed Affects Your SEO

A slow-loading website can cause buyers to lose interest in your business, jump back to the search results, and then click-through to your competitor's website. Making sure that your website loads quickly is essential for helping potential customers interact with your company's website while helping you grow your visibility in the search engines.

If you'd like to see your website's load speed score on desktop and mobile devices, you can test your website for free using Google's PageSpeed Insights tool.