Why Fast-loading Websites Convert Better and How to Optimize for Speed
TL;DR: Evidence shows an almost linear relationship between page speed and conversion rates; the higher the speed, the higher the rate. You can optimize your site for speed by removing unused or old WordPress updates, choosing the right hosting solution, and testing and improving load times on mobile devices.
A website’s conversion rate is directly connected to the revenue generated, and page speed strongly impacts user behavior. The practice of increasing rates, known as conversion rate optimization or CRO, is an ongoing process. A page’s conversion rate can always be optimized further unless it’s already at 100%, which is highly unlikely.
Half of internet users expect a webpage to load in under 2 secs
Just under half (47%) of internet users expect a webpage to load in two seconds or less. Testing by mPulse Mobile determined a 1.9% conversion rate for pages that loaded in 2.4 seconds. The rate dropped to 1.5% at 3.3 seconds, below 1% at 4.2 seconds, and just 0.6% at 5.7+ seconds, meaning that 0.6% of visitors bought something from the business.
These findings overlap with other companies’ experiences. Walmart established a 2% increase in conversions for every improvement in page load time of one second. Mobify found that each improvement of 100ms in their homepage’s load time led to a 1.11% conversion rate increase. By reducing page load time by 0.85 seconds, COOK was able to increase conversions by 7%. Even marginal increases in conversion can have an immense impact on a website’s revenue.
Speeding up your website in 2025
Building faster websites is a must in 2025, and understanding how to optimize website speed is crucial to one’s prospects, regardless of their niche or industry. Business owners, web developers, and other professionals stand to gain a lot from improving their online presence.
Remove outdated WordPress elements or versions
Outdated WordPress plugins, themes, or versions can bloat and slow down a website. To you’re your site fast, review and remove unused or needless updates regularly.
Find a reliable hosting platform
Not all WordPress hosting is created equal. Users of shared hosting might be sharing resources with a plethora of websites. Upgrading to a VPS or managed hosting can offer a nice speed boost.
Use tools to gauge performance on mobile
AMP reduces webpages down to the bare essentials, making them load almost immediately on mobile devices. If your site is heavily content-reliant, this tool can be a game-changer for speed. Tools like PageSpeed Insights and Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test also provide valuable insight into your site’s performance on mobile devices.
In January 2024, mobile devices accounted for almost 60% of website views globally, but the percentage varies between continents. Due to poor infrastructure and budgetary constraints, some emerging markets skipped the desktop phase, moving right to mobile via smartphones and tablets. For example, more than 73% of views in Africa were on mobile. Most traffic in North America still took place on desktop computers, with mobile devices making up 45.5% of web traffic.
Optimize your images
Image formats like WebP and AVIF offer smaller file sizes without sacrificing quality. As desktop connections are faster and more reliable, you can use JPEG XL or PNG for high-precision graphics. To optimize images, use free tools like Squoosh or TinyPNG.
Implement lazy loading
With lazy loading, images and videos are only loaded when needed. This means website visitors won’t have to wait for media to load before they have scrolled to the respective image or video. The browser uses the tag’s src attribute to cause an image to load if the image loads using the <img> tag, regardless of which image it is in the HTML (first, twentieth, etc.) You would put the image URL in an attribute other than src to lazy-load such images. For example, you could enter the image URL in the tag’s data-src attribute. The browser won’t trigger image loading when the src is empty.
Recap
- Half of internet users expect a webpage to load in under 2 seconds
- Remove outdated WordPress elements or versions
- Find a reliable hosting platform
- Use tools to gauge performance on mobile
- Optimize your images
- Implement lazy loading
