August 2016 - Zen Den Web Design - Creativity and Security in One Place

Website Speed and You

Put simply, website speed (or more accurately, page loading speed) refers to the time it takes for a webpage to load. The speed at which the pages of a website load can be affected by a number of factors, including, but not limited to the level of content, the form the content takes, and the processing power behind the website itself. Typically, it is measured in one of two ways- either by the time it takes a single page to load fully, or the time it takes for the browser to receive the first byte of data from the server.

Website Speed and Search Ranking

Website speed does impact search ranking; reports indicate that both Google and Bing (and a lot of other search engines) include website speed via a number of criteria, as one of the factors influencing search rating. Knowing this, it’s important to optimize your website to increase page loading speed in order to rank as high as possible. If you are unaware of where your website stands in terms of speed, there are a number of tests to determine how efficient your website is. Put simply, faster is better. Always.

Are there any Drawbacks to a Slow Website?

As technology advances, and more and more information can be shared via Internet connection, access to this network is expected as a convenience- especially in terms of mobile culture. In fact, while the page loading speeds of both desktop and mobile devices are both important, the mobile loading speed is the more important criterion of the two.

What Does This Mean for Businesses and Potential Customers?

Why does this matter from a business end? Snap decisions. Impulse buys. When people are using mobile devices, they are looking for convenience, are likely on the move- which means they are interested in making a decision, but they need a little more knowledge to make that decision. And when people are looking for answers, they want to be able to make an informed decision quickly. Regardless of the information available on a website, if it takes an abnormally long time (more than two seconds, typically) for that information to load, a potential visitor will likely lose patience. When it comes to relaying information, speed is king. A slow website will cost you business, directly through customers who ‘walk away’, and indirectly through a lower position on search rankings.

How to Improve Website Speed (and Positively Impact Search Ranking)

There are a number of things that you can do to improve the speed of your website. In general, you want to ensure that all of the content on each page is completely relevant, without being frivolous and over the top. Everything in its place. Everything serving a purpose. Once you’ve determined what content you absolutely need, it’s time to optimize that content. For starters, it helps to streamline your code, making it as efficient as possible by removing unnecessary characters. From there, you can enable file compression on certain code files over 150 bytes. You’ll also want to cut down on needless redirects between domains within your website- take the most direct route possible when transferring from one page to another.

In the same vein, it makes sense to trim down on pages you don’t need for the website. From a server standpoint, it makes sense to optimize by adding more memory and better software, things which will better allow your server (and thus your webpage) to handle larger levels of traffic.

The End Result

In summation, website speed (page loading speed) will most definitely negatively impact search ranking. Fewer customers will see your site and therefore it will be less popular; search engines will see how slow it is, as well as how infrequently it is visited, and rank it lower- it’s a vicious cycle.
To avoid this, it’s crucial to maintain a good website speed as part of the SEO process. First, determine your website’s speed via testing; from there, troubleshoot potential causes, including bottlenecks and redundancies, that can impact search ranking. Afterwards, be sure to maximize your website’s efficiency streamlining your code and your systems and filtering out anything that is unnecessary.

Deemed the plague of digital retail, eCommerce abandoned carts are amounting to billions of dollars lost in revenue. If you’re operating an online shop, you know all too well, and dread, the abandoned items, forgotten, dismissed or removed. Retargeting customers that once showed a strong intention of purchase is necessary but shouldn’t take all of your time, energy and budget so you can keep doing what you do: grow a business. Enter 5 tools that take most of the workload away so you can claim back that shopper that was rightly yours.

Passive retargeting of eCommerce abandoned carts

To efficiently recover lost sales, you can track users and spark their memory (and possibly manage a conversion) through advertising, or you can analyze their browsing behavior to improve your content accordingly.

AdRoll

In terms of remarketing via advertising, AdRoll offers an array of interesting features. The main benefit of their solution is its versatility; your ads can shadow users across different platforms: browsers, apps, social media…
Another key element is the ability to segment your campaigns based on product and/or progression in the purchase funnel. This allows you to better qualify your targets. With analytics reporting and you can track your spending and allocate your $$ more efficiently.

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is also an interesting retargeting tools, albeit indirectly geared towards abandoned carts. The tool helps you to gain insight in browsing/shopping behaviors so you can fix and improve. In essence, Crazy Egg tells you where the customers are coming from (so you can add details to your buyer’s personas). It displays where the users are on a page, where they click and how far down a page they are willing to browse.
Those features are priceless to guide you towards more efficiency: know what works, what may be missing, what CTAs are not performing and what content you need to keep up on the page rather than relegated to the bottom.
Cart abandonment is not only due to a real lack of intention or a change of heart. If the purchase doesn’t go through, it may simply be because some elements were missing. That’s where Crazy Egg is useful.

Direct engagement and conversion triggers

The staggering volume of eCommerce abandoned carts has prompted many retailers to try and engage the customers more directly. Email campaigns are still widely used in the industry, though new behaviors make it clear that personal contact needs to go one step further.

Rejoiner

You’re in business, so you know everything sits on 3 principles in retargeting campaigns: recover, retain, optimize.
Rejoiner allows you to recover lost sales through responsive, customized emails. You bring customers directly back to their cart. Via consistent communication and product display, it helps you gain the loyalty of your best customers and retain their favor. A/B testing and metrics reporting gives you an edge to spend efficiently. The cherry on the cake is that Rejoiner also includes a feature predicting what product people may buy next.

CartStack

In the email retargeting tools family, CartStack holds its ground. Message and visual content personalization to fit your brand identity, automated recovery (like most, still a must-have) and actionable reporting.
Simply put, automated recovery means you set up the rules for remarketing and see what happens. Actionable reporting is the next step. Analyzing the results regarding opening rate, click rate and conversion tells you exactly what works and what needs improvement.
Choosing an email solution to retarget eCommerce abandoned carts can be a bit daunting. CartStack offers $1,000 recovery guarantee, or else!

Carts Guru

Finally, at last, a comprehensive tool that lets e-shops retarget at a multi channel level. New kid on the block, Carts Guru understands that the way people shop, communicate and use digital devices need to be taken into account. The plugin seamlessly integrates within the major eCommerce platforms (or via an API) and offers 4 solutions to grab the customers back: traditional email, text messaging, text with callback option and automated call.

You can use any by itself or create combinations. You have complete control over your retargeting scenarios (based on product or category, transaction amount, time between triggers,…). The fully loaded dashboard generates data in real time so you can monitor performance, test criteria and improve the campaigns.
Knowing that a text message is read within minutes of reception, the potential for conversion takes a new dimension. You can try Carts Guru for free until you recover $2,500 in sales (or for 14 days, whichever occurs first).

These 5 solutions to retarget eCommerce abandoned carts are but a few of what is available. As with any remarketing strategy, be it on site improvement or customer engagement, the first order of action is identifying segments to target and understanding shopping behavior. Not every abandoned order is worth recovering.

Does Website Speed Impact Search Ranking