Consumers lack patience with slow websites, study finds
In today's competitive digital landscape, user experience can make or break customer relationships. It's more crucial than ever for business owners to ensure that their website loads quickly, functions smoothly and is secure.
A study by Forbes Advisor shows that if a website is too slow, 48% of consumers will go to the next search result and 43% will look for alternative businesses.
Additional key insights include:
Low-quality web hosting affects customer loyalty
Quality web hosting is vital for businesses, as it directly impacts customer experience and loyalty. A survey of 2,000 respondents illustrated just how much web hosting can impact customer loyalty, with statistics that reveal how site visitors react in response to poor-performing websites.
Website users will wait an average of eight seconds for a website to load
The average site visitor surveyed said they would wait up to eight seconds for a website to load. However, the second most common threshold reported by nearly one-third of respondents dropped down to just three to six seconds. This shows how crucial every second is when it comes to site speed, a factor in website performance.
The majority of website users find a slow or unresponsive website to be frustrating
Just 2% of respondents reported that they do not find a slow website to be frustrating, unsurprisingly, clearly illustrating the vast majority of people who do. Meanwhile, 97% of respondents said that an unresponsive website is frustrating. While there are many factors involved in a site’s speed and responsiveness, the quality of its web hosting service is one of the biggest aspects–and one of the easiest that a business can quickly change.
[Read more: How can retailers capture growth in consumer health care?]
43% of website users will go to a competitor if a business’ website doesn’t load or is unresponsive
One of the most concerning website performance statistics is that nearly half of all site visitors will go to a competitor if your site is slow or unresponsive. This alone could be responsible for a high customer attrition rate, but it could also lead to a lot of wasted money for those using their marketing budget to drive traffic to their website.
66% will not visit websites if they don’t have “HTTPS” security
While businesses often focus primarily on web design–and rightfully so–only 21% of respondents said they wouldn’t use an unattractive website. Meanwhile, nearly seven in 10 respondents said that they would not use a website that is not secured with an HTTPS protocol. While all sites that accept online payments are required to use HTTPS, it can easily be installed using an SSL certificate that is often available for free through web hosting providers. This web hosting statistic illustrates the importance of securing your site in order to build trust with your site visitors.
[Read more: How can retailers capture growth in consumer health care?]
This online survey of 2,000 U.S. adults was commissioned by Forbes Advisor and conducted by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society’s code of conduct