Take any dealerships website and check it in PageSpeed Insights they all have ranking penalties and it does not count as time on the site.
Let’s say you’re spending $1,000 a month on a PPC campaign and getting 1 sale, to double your income you could spend $2,000.00 next month and get two sales or you could increase your conversions by just 1% and get that extra sale that way.
Page Speed Is Critical for Conversions, Rankings, and Customer Satisfaction!
Whether you're running an e-commerce site, a blog, selling cars, giving information or a business website, page speed directly impacts conversions, search engine rankings, and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.
1. Page Speed and Search Engine Rankings:
Bigger Sites Rank Better
Google’s algorithm considers page speed a key ranking factor, favoring websites that load quickly and deliver a better user experience. Larger websites often have an advantage because they contain more pages, which means they have more control over internal links and have more chances to receive more external backlinks.
However none of that matters if Google can't spider the site and find those pages.
Crawl Budget, Rate, Depth, and Timeout
Google assigns a “crawl budget” to each site—the maximum number of pages it will crawl in a given timeframe. If your website loads slowly, Google may consume more of its allocated crawl budget on fewer pages, leaving other pages unindexed. Slow loading times may also reduce the crawl rate, meaning Google will visit your site less frequently and may miss updates or new content, affecting your site’s overall visibility in search results.
Example: A website that takes longer than 1 second for the first content paint can experience a reduced crawl rate, limiting how often and how many pages Google crawls. For slower sites, even deeper pages may go uncrawled, impacting the visibility and ranking.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals place specific emphasis on metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). A page with an LCP of over 2.5 seconds will get a ranking penalty. Other words...pages with high LCP scores will rank lower.
Optimizing your site to meet Core Web Vitals requirements should be a non-negotiable aspect of SEO.
2. Page Speed and Conversions:
Research shows that even a 100-millisecond improvement in load time can lead to measurable increases in conversion rates. For example, Amazon observed a 1% increase in sales for every 100 milliseconds of improved load time, while Walmart reported a 2% increase in conversion rates for every 1-second improvement.
Direct Impact on Sales
A website’s speed directly correlates with revenue. Consider that the average dealership website takes 23.6 seconds to load on mobile, while Google's on studies showed if a website takes just 3 seconds to load it will lose 53% of its traffic.
If a website reduced its load time from 23.6 seconds to just 0.8 seconds, this 22.8-second improvement could potentially lead to a 228% increase in sales based on Amazon’s calculations.
For businesses relying on ad spend or rankings to drive conversions, improving page speed can be a cost-effective way to maximize the return on every dollar spent.
Case Studies of Speed and Sales Growth
- Mobify: A 1.11% increase in sales was noted for every 100-millisecond improvement in page load time.
- Cook: A 7% increase in conversions was observed for every 850 milliseconds of load time saved.
3. Page Speed and Customer Satisfaction:
Page speed is a major factor influencing customer satisfaction. When pages load quickly, visitors are more likely to engage with content, stay longer, and return in the future.
However, a slow-loading pages lead to higher bounce rates and shorter session durations, signaling to search engines that users are not having a good experience.
Bounce Rates and User Engagement
Google’s research shows that bounce rates nearly triple when page load times exceed three seconds. This means users are likely to abandon your site before ever visiting the next page, which not only impacts your traffic but also hurts your search rankings.
Session Duration and Brand Perception
When users remain on a site for a longer period, it signals to Google that they are finding value in the content. Moreover, longer session durations often translate to a positive brand perception, as users feel more connected and engaged.
For example, studies have shown that 53% of users leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds for the largest content element to load. A seamless, fast experience keeps users satisfied and strengthens their relationship with your dealership.
Dealerships have been getting screwed by their web designers and SEO's since manufactors forced them to pick from a handful of companies.
