Is your ecommerce or business website costing you money–instead of making you money? According to data from a Shop.org presentation on ecommerce website design and performance, here are some of the most common website design and performance mistakes.
- Your site doesn’t render in 3 seconds or less. This is the time online shoppers expect to wait. However, a study of the top 100 online retailers found their home pages take an average of 6.2 seconds to load primary content and 10.7 seconds to load all content.The worst-case scenarios are when your website stays blank, then suddenly loads all the content at once; or when it loads navigational elements first, then slo-o-w-ly loads the primary content such as images and product links.
- Images are slowing your site down.Images are becoming bigger and more important in ecommerce websites. However, even when you use images formatted for the Web, this can slow down load times. The report recommends compressing images as one easy solution.
- Third-party scripts are slowing your site down. If you have a ton of third-party scripts running, such as from a plethora of social sharing icons and widgets, they can account for up to 50 percent of the time it takes your site to load. Deferring scripts is one solution.
- Your call-to-action loads last. It’s important for your CTA to load right away. Designers like to put CTAs below images, but for best results, put them at the top so they load faster.
- Pop-ups are getting in the way.Have you ever waited and waited for a website to load and then, just as it does, a huge pop-up asking you to “Join our email list” or “Rate your experience” blocks the entire screen? (This just happened to me today—it drives me crazy!) There’s nothing wrong with pop-ups, but give your users a chance to actually experience the site before you bombard them with offers and requests. The report recommends delaying pop-ups for at least 10 seconds after the full page loads.
Check out the full presentation for more solutions and recommendations for creating a website that helps boost sales. If some of the suggested fixes are over your head, talk to your website designer and let them handle it for you.
Do you need assistance in building or redesigning your website? Web.com has a great do-it-yourself website builder tool that will ensure that your site looks good, loads fast, and is coded correctly. And, unlike other website companies, if you need extra help, Web.com has experienced designers available to help you finish and make sure you don’t make the kind of mistakes that will cost you money.
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