WHAT A SLOW WEBSITE REALLY COSTS YOU, AND HOW FAST SPEEDING IT UP PAYS FOR ITSELF

We think of a site's speed as a technical detail. It is a line on the income statement. Here is how to put a figure on it in ten minutes, with your own numbers.

What the studies say

Google has measured that one mobile visitor in two leaves a page that takes more than three seconds to display, and that the probability of abandonment rises by a third between one and three seconds. Deloitte, in 2020, tracked 37 retail sites for a month: a tenth of a second gained increased sales by 8 percent in retail, and enquiries by 10 percent in travel. These are averages; your site may do better or worse. But the order of magnitude is there.

The maths for a showcase site

Take your monthly visits from mobile (Search Console or your analytics tool), say 800. If your page takes 5 seconds, count on a third to half leaving before seeing anything: 300 visitors who don't exist for you. On a tradesperson's showcase site, 2 to 4 visitors in 100 call or write: that's 6 to 12 enquiries a month, lost. At a €500 average basket for a tradesperson, that's €3,000 to €6,000 of potential quotes every month.

The maths for an online store

Same reasoning, with the conversion rate: 5,000 mobile visits, 1.5 percent conversion, €60 average basket make €4,500 in sales. Going from 5 to 2 seconds recovers part of the abandonments and improves the conversion of those who stay: between 15 and 30 percent more sales on mobile according to the studies, i.e. €700 to €1,300 per month in this example. Without one more ad.

What you don't see

Three invisible costs. Advertising: every Google Ads or Meta click landing on a slow page is paid for nothing. Search ranking: with equal content, Google puts the fast page first, and your competitor picks up the searches you lose. Image: a site that drags has the same effect as a dirty shop window, the visitor doesn't say so, they just don't call.

How fast it pays for itself

Speeding up a showcase site costs in the region of €700 to €1,200, a store €1,300 to €3,000 depending on the catalogue. With the numbers above, a showcase site pays for itself in one to two months of recovered quotes, a store in two to three months. The result is measured: mobile score and display time before and after, enquiries and sales in the following 28 days.

Do the maths with your own figures

You need two numbers: your monthly mobile visits and your current display time. The second is in the free audit, in thirty seconds. If the result hurts, the Slow website service starts with a €190 diagnosis, deducted from the rest, with a measurable target written into the quote.

Frequently asked questions