Why speed matters more than you think – for both your customers and your bottom line

Many growing brands underestimate how much speed impacts everything, from how your customers feel on your site, to how high you rank on Google, to how much revenue you leave on the table every second your page takes too long to load.

We’re in an era of instant expectations. People don’t just want fast, they expect it. Studies show that if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, more than half of your mobile visitors will bounce. That number jumps dramatically the slower your site gets – with bounce rates increasing by over 90% at the 5-second mark. Even a tiny delay matters: some reports show that every additional 100 milliseconds of load time can drop conversions by up to 7%. That’s not a UX issue – that’s a revenue problem.

Major brands understand this, which is why performance is treated as a core part of their conversion strategy. Walmart, for example, saw a 2% increase in conversions for every one-second improvement in page load speed. When you’re working with tight ROAS and rising ad costs, shaving a few seconds off your store isn’t just “nice to have”, it’s direct profit.

That’s why brands who prioritize performance see not just better conversions – but higher average order value and better retention. Speed isn’t just about attracting visitors. It’s about keeping them, converting them, and getting them to come back.

But it’s not just about converting the traffic you already have. Speed also determines how much traffic you get in the first place.

Google now uses page performance including things like load speed and layout stability as part of its search ranking algorithm. That means slower sites don’t just feel worse; they rank worse. Fast-loading pages are more likely to appear on the first page of search results, which is where nearly all organic traffic comes from. And if you’re spending money on paid ads, you’re still getting penalized for poor performance. Slow sites often have higher bounce rates and lower Quality Scores, which drive up your cost-per-click.