Why does the length of time it takes to load a page on your website matter? Well, the length of time it takes for a page to load on your website is directly correlated with converting website visitors to customers. In fact, every second that a visitor has to wait for a page to load, their chance of turning into a customer decreases. Game store retailers often struggle with slower webpage speed due to the size and complexity of the inventory a typical retailer carries at one time. The faster game store retailers can make their pages load, the more website visitors they will see turn into customers. 

So, how do you know how long a given page on your website takes to load? Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is a great way for game store retailers to access this information. It is a very simple tool that only requires the URL of the page you are trying to analyze. Are your pages loading at slower times than you thought? Not to worry, here are a couple simple ways to help you increase your speed today.

One of the most common items that can limit the speed of your site is when graphics and images are not "internet-friendly." Meaning, that the image size and resolution are very large. When images are of a larger size and higher resolution, it takes much longer for them to load on webpages. Game store retailers can combat this common issue by using tools such as Photoshop, Tinypng or Compressor to help shrink images to a faster loading size. 

The other major thing to remember is that the simpler the page is, the better. Now, this does not mean taking all images and graphics off your site. Instead, you should make sure you only have what is absolutely necessary on each page. The reason for this is because HTTP requests get sent out to the server for every file on the page, whether it be images or URLs. The more HTTP requests that have to get sent to the server, the longer the page will take to load, which often leads to the website visitor getting frustrated and leaving the site. 

Overall, the faster the website speed, the more visitors you will see converted to customers. These are a few easy steps that you can implement on your website today to immediately see a difference in page load time. Try implementing these steps on your website and let us know how your loading times decrease and web conversions increase.