Slow page load, slow sales.

Consumers are more impatient than ever. Most of us become restless waiting even a few minutes for that sleepy barista to finish our morning cappuccino or for that seemingly endless red light to turn green. Sitting around waiting for a web page to load? Before you can say “attention span,” we’ve hit the back button or moved on to another, more responsive site.

Auto shoppers are no more amenable to waiting for pages to load than any other type of consumer. How well is your dealership’s site keeping up with them? Have you ever considered that slow-loading pages could be impacting your own conversion rates?

As this article from Post Modern Marketing explains, monitoring and improving your site’s speed is a vital element of a successful digital strategy for two reasons:

1. Speed impacts search engine results.

Google has come right out and stated that they give weight to speed in their search results. In their words, “We’re including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed.”

2. Speed can make the difference between a customer moving forward, or moving on.

Any wait that exceeds five seconds is a non-starter for users. And, if they have a bad experience with load times on your site once time, you’ve likely lost them forever.

So, what can you do to prevent the perils of pokey pages? First and foremost, monitor your site’s speed and other important data using Google Webmaster tools or another resource. Additionally, ensure your hosting provider is up to the job. If you’re not receiving the speed you need to compete, look elsewhere.

Understanding how impatient shoppers respond to your site, how you compare to your competition, and what you can do to turbocharge your page loads could lead to the boost in conversions you’ve been looking for.