Problems associated with poor website performance

24
Oct

In order to stay successful online, there are a wide range of factors to consider. From Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to content, and of course, website performance, a number of different elements play an important role in achieving top search rankings, building user trust, and gaining authority. Good website performance is the foundation of this success, but what are the problems associated with poor website performance? And what can you do to resolve website performance issues?

So what are the problems associated with poor website performance?

There are a number of different problems that can be caused by a poor website performance. These include:

  • Low search rankings 
  • A poor user experience 
  • Low conversion rates 
  • A negative impact on E-E-A-T 
  • Increasing bounce rates 

Poor website performance leads to low search rankings

When determining where to position your website on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), search engines like Google use ranking algorithms. One of the key factors of this is the overall website performance, particularly speed. This is because slow-loading pages lead to longer wait times, which search engines interpret as poor user experience. As a result, Google may lower your ranking, making it harder for users to find your website.

In addition, poor performance affects how quickly search engine crawlers can index your website. When these crawlers encounter slow pages, they may not be able to crawl and index all of your content, leading to incomplete or outdated search results.

Poor website performance leads to a poor user experience 

Another area that website performance can directly impact is the User experience (UX). A website with a high level of performance will deliver a positive UX, while poor performance leads to a low UX score. This is unsurprising as frustration from slow-loading pages, broken links, and poor navigation can all lead potential customers or clients to abandon your website. These are all common aspects of poor website performance.

One particular problem, broken links and poor navigation, can have a direct impact on UX. This is because, when your website users can’t find what they are looking for, they are more likely to leave your website, reducing your chances of converting them into customers or followers.

Poor website performance leads to low conversion rates

As well as low search rankings and a poor user experience, a poor website performance can also lead to low conversion rates. A slow loading website, a website with broken links, and a website obstructed by pop-ups can all suffer from low conversion rates, as your users become frustrated and leave your website. This also leaves your potential customers and clients with a negative impression of your company or business overall, damaging your brand reputation.

A negative impact on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)

E-E-A-T is an important framework used by Google to assess the quality of websites and their content. Poor website performance can have a negative impact on this assessment, as well as affecting a site’s credibility. For example, slow speed, broken links, and inaccessible pages all contribute to a poor user experience and lead to a lower E-E-A-T score. In addition, users are less likely to trust a website that performs poorly, which can result in reduced traffic and lower search rankings over time.

Authoritativeness and trustworthiness, in particular, are harmed when a website looks unprofessional or outdated, which can be an impression created by performance issues. Expertise can also be questioned if users cannot easily navigate or access the valuable content on the website due to technical issues.

An increase in bounce rates

Finally, poor website performance also leads to an increase in bounce rates. As mentioned above, website visitors that become frustrated with the organisation of your website, and the loading times, are more likely to leave your website without converting. When this occurs, search engines like Google may penalise your website by lowering its rank. This starts a vicious cycle where reduced traffic leads to fewer conversions, negatively impacting the overall performance and profitability of the website.

What are the causes of poor website performance and how can these be resolved?

A range of different factors can cause a poor website performance, and these include:

  • A slow loading speed 
  • Unoptimised images 
  • Broken links and menu items 
  • Too many pop-ups 
  • Lack of mobile optimisation 
  • Slow loading speed 

One of the most significant issues that can affect your website performance is the loading speed. Slow loading times lead to frustration and a high bounce rate, and there are several steps that you can take to resolve this, including:

  • Image optimisation – Compressing large images can reduce their file size so that they don’t hold up the loading speed of your website. 
  • Minify code – You can reduce the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files to speed up loading times, without losing functionality. 
  • Lazy loading – Consider using lazy loading for images, where images load only when they are visible on the user’s screen. This reduces initial load times and improves overall site speed.

Unoptimised images

Another notable issue is unoptimised images. This can include images with a very large file size, as well as images that aren’t designed to be mobile friendly, or to respond to the size of the screen loading the website. This can be resolved in a number of different ways, including:

  • Image compression- compressing images without losing image quality can allow you to display top notch images without having a negative effect on website performance.
  • Responsive design- making sure that your images are responsive to screen size changes can make a big difference to the visual impact of your website, and reduce user frustration, improving the UX.

Broken links and menu items

If your website cannot be easily navigated, and your website users can’t find the information they are looking for or expecting on your website, then they will become frustrated and leave. This also impacts the ability of search engines to crawl your website, which means that some indexing issues may occur. To resolve this, you can:

  • Audit your site for broken links- fix or remove broken links to improve both user experience and search engine rankings.
  • Test navigation menus regularly- this helps ensure that your links are well maintained and are working as expected.

Too many pop-ups

While pop-ups can be helpful for gathering emails or promoting offers, too many can be disruptive, especially if they load slowly or block essential content. You also need to take into account the cookie pop-up, when your website loads. Pop-ups that interrupt the user experience may increase bounce rates and lower your overall conversion rates. This can be resolved by:

  • Limiting the number of pop-ups on your site- too many pop-ups is one of the biggest problems so make sure you only use them as necessary.
  • Ensure pop-ups appear at the right time- when your website loads, your users will be greeted by a cookie pop-up. It’s important that you time any other pop-ups to not appear until the time is right, i,.e. after a certain link has been followed, or after a certain amount of time spent on the website.

For professional SEO support and top quality digital marketing, why not get in touch with Preston’s leading experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design?

 

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