Think with google – calculate your potential revenue

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Think with google –
calculate your potential revenue

The introduction of 3G and its (hugely successful) successor 4G signified the beginning of a new era of mobile internet access. Suddenly, everything that the user could want was right there at their fingertips with no need to rely on Wi-Fi connections to access the World Wide Web. This dramatic shift in mobile internet technology has also brought about a change in what users now expect.

And what exactly is it that users expect? In short, users expect a mobile website experience that is faster and more efficient than ever before. They expect an experience that is convenient, engaging, fulfilling; they expect to be satisfied and not frustrated. Users have always expected desktop websites to respond quickly, and mobile websites are no longer an exception.

As of 2018, 80% of internet users own a smartphone1, and 57% of users would not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website2. Furthermore, according to Google DoubleClick, if a website loads in less than 5 seconds, it will see 70% longer session duration as well as an increase in ad visibility of around 25%3.

There are many more statistics that could be quoted, but you get the idea. The bottom line is that mobile websites are an important tool in this day and age and having a faster, more responsive website is key to your success. After all, average smartphone conversion rates have increased by 64%. This is an impressive leap, especially when compared to the less impressive average conversion rates of desktop websites.

The message is clear – mobile websites are firmly in charge and becoming the most common means for customers to interact with content, services and products.

CrUX – Additional Information

Typically, site speed is measured by the 90th percentile of First Contentful Paint which is taken directly from the CrUX report. In a nutshell, this works by identifying the moment a website appears in a browser and then tracks the time it takes for the site to become fully visible and interactive.

The Chrome User Experience Report or CrUX utilises a ranking a methodology that combines three metrics – First Contentful Paint, DOMContentLoaded and Onload. The reason for this is that no one metric is capable of accurately capturing mobile site speed and user experience by itself.

It is worth noting that because of the way it tracks three different metrics a website with a slower First Contentful Paint time can rank higher than one with a faster Paint time.

Mobile Scorecard

The Mobile Scorecard provides a clear and concise analysis of the speed of any website. The process couldn’t be simpler, and within a matter of seconds, you’ll know exactly how fast your website is and how it stacks up against your competitors. This is important as if your competitor’s website is faster, you could be losing potential customers.

Likewise, a slower website could be cheating you out of potential earnings (we’ll come to this later in the article). Therefore, it’s important to know where you sit relative to rival companies.

But why should you trust this data? Well, you should trust this data because it comes directly from Google. Quite simply, the Mobile Scorecard accesses data contained within the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). This data enables the tool to compare multiple site speeds and compile all of this into easy-to-follow statistics.

This incredible tool can provide an accurate means of reporting on thousands of websites from a dozen countries. Furthermore, is that this tool is in many ways a spiritual successor to the PageSpeed Insights Tool introduced in January 2018.

That is to say that the Mobile Scorecard actually draws from the same database of Chrome user latency data making it an incredibly reliable resource. Remember, according to Google mid-range devices using 3G, a page load time of no less than 5 seconds is recommended. For devices operating a 4G connection, the response time should be no longer than 3 seconds.

Conversion Impact Calculator

By itself, the Mobile Scorecard only provides a snapshot but when combined with the Conversion Impact Calculator, only then do you get the complete picture. Why? You might ask. Well, the Mobile Scorecard simply tells you how long your site takes to load and how it stacks up against your competitors.

The Conversion Impact Calculator takes this information, combines it with other metrics and informs you on how revenue can be increased (or decreased) by implementing an increase in site speed. Let’s use an example to illustrate this:

At the time of writing this, it took Facebook 2.8s to load fully. If we lower this to 1.8s and assume 1,000 average monthly visitors, $500 (£358) average order value and a conversion rate of 1%, this could potentially translate to an increase of around $2,507 (£1,795) in revenue per month. Obviously, Facebook is not an E-Commerce website and so wouldn’t have an average order value, but you get the gist.

As with the Mobile Scorecard, this data comes directly from Google and is based on data from The State of Online Retail Performance report published in April 2017. What makes this report relevant is that it provides a complete breakdown of how each second of delay in page load times can hurt conversion rates by up to 20%.

How to calculate your site speed & revenue opportunity

This might all seem a little daunting, but in all honesty, these tools couldn’t be simpler to use. But, let’s assume that you need a little helping hand. Well, you’re in luck, as you’ll find helpful instructions below that will help you to wrap your head around the following:

How to Work Out Average Order Value

In short, to work out your ‘Average Order Value’, you simply take your total revenue and divide that by the number of orders taken. Bear in mind, however, that this isn’t 100% accurate. To improve accuracy further, it is suggested that you factor in expenses, the cost of goods sold, etc. and subtract these from your total revenue.

Using the Mobile Scorecard

Start by selecting your country and the connection you’re testing for in the drop-down menus.

In the top box, enter the URL of the website you wish to track and click the arrow to the right.

The website will then be displayed in the box below alongside its site speed.

To compare your competitor’s websites, simply enter their site domains into the top bar, and they will appear in the box below.

This will then provide you with a clear indication as to where your site ranks against your competitor’s websites.

Using the Conversion Impact Calculator

So you’ve entered your information into the Mobile Scorecard, and you now have your website’s speed rating; so what comes next? Well, you’ll want to see what this means for your company in terms of potential revenue. So the next step would be to use the Conversion Impact Calculator:

Your Domain and Current Speed should already be populated in the top two boxes.

First, begin by entering an amount into the box titled ‘Average Monthly Visitors’.

Next, enter an amount into the box titled ‘Average Order Value’.

Finally, input your website’s current ‘Conversion Rate’.

Underneath, you will see a slider that is pre-set to your Current Site Speed.

Using your mouse, adjust this slider to reduce the site speed load time (increase the speed).

Above the slider, the value will change to reflect how much revenue you could potentially generate by increasing site speed.

If we refer back to the example above, we noticed that by simply reducing the page load time from 2.8s to 1.8s (based on the metrics provided), this translated to a revenue increase of over $2000 (£1400) per month.

How to Work Out Your Average Monthly Visitors

Don’t worry; this doesn’t involve you staring at spreadsheets and long and overly convoluted reports. In fact, it is honestly quite simple and can all be done with Google Analytics. This is a service that we at edirect can provide as part of your SEO, or if you prefer, you can follow this handy step-by-step guide:

For the purpose of this guide, we will assume that you already hold a Google Analytics account.

First, start by logging into your Google Analytics account.

Navigate to Overview > All Accounts and select the website that you wish to view.

Next to the website account name, you’ll see “View Report”. Click this.

In the upper right corner of the dashboard, select “Date Range”.

This will display visitor statistics for specific date ranges.

Select a start and end date using the calendar tool. Click “Apply”.

While scrolling down the page, you will come across the “Site Usage” section.

Note down the ‘Average Monthly Visitor’ statistic displayed here.

Repeat this process for each month.

Add the values for each month together then divide by the number of months being tracked.

And there you have it – your ‘Average Monthly Visitors’!

How to Obtain Your Website’s Conversion Rate

Conversions are, quite simply, metrics that track whenever a visitor to your site takes a meaningful action, e.g. completes a transaction. This quite simply relates to a visitor converting to an actual customer. Conversions are an excellent way of keeping track of and managing your ROI. In effect, these can serve as benchmarks and highlight areas of success as well as areas for improvement.

To obtain your conversion rate, you must first set up website tracking using a tool such as Google Analytics. This allows for conversion data to be collected in real-time in a way that can be accessed and analysed quickly and easily.

Start by gathering the necessary data from your chosen analytical software.

For ‘Lead Generation’ follow the formula:
Number of Leads Collected / Total Traffic to Site x 100 = Conversion Rate.

For ‘Sales’ follow the formula:
Number of Sales / Number of Visitors x 100 = Conversion Rate.

But why is all this so important?

As we’ve mentioned before, site speed has a huge impact on the success of your business. Try stepping into the customer’s shoes for a moment. Let’s say you’re searching for a great deal on a new pair of shoes, booking a last minute holiday or trying to secure tickets for a gig; what would frustrate this experience? A slow website, of course.

Access needs to be quick and responsive allowing the customer to navigate to and purchase the products they seek without waiting around. It is reported that around 53% of visits are abandoned in cases where a mobile site has taken longer than three seconds to respond4. That, right there is a huge incentive to want to ensure that your website is both fast and responsive as websites like this are less likely to be abandoned.

“mobile websites are firmly in charge and becoming the most common means for customers to interact with content, services and products.”

How can edirect help?

So, you’ve run the Mobile Scorecard and Conversion Impact Calculator and decided that your site’s speed could do with a boost. The question is, what comes next? Here at edirect, we are a fully-fledged digital marketing agency based in the heart of Bournemouth. We provide services which can assist in improving your site’s speed and overall performance.

Web Design

While the cost of a new website may seem steep initially, you will almost certainly make back the cost in just a few months thanks to the increased revenue. The beauty of a new E-Commerce website is that it can be built from the ground-up with your needs in mind. Our web design team are adept at implementing features that increase engagement without taxing the available resources.

We can work with you to build a website that looks great, comes with a bunch of great features and is optimised to run faster than your existing site.

Hosting

Ever since Google added page load speed (and by extension, site load speed) to its ranking algorithms, this has become a major consideration in the world of SEO. Despite web hosting having a huge impact on site speed, it is often overlooked. While the notion ‘ignorance is bliss’ comes to mind, it is rather bizarre to ignore such an obvious issue.

For starters, your page rankings will be adversely affected by slow site speeds. This is because page (site) speed is, as mentioned above, a key ranking factor. The user experience is also greatly effected with sites taking longer than usual to respond and, in some cases, even timing out. If the user becomes frustrated, they will likely abandon their efforts, especially in the case of E-Commerce websites.

At edirect, we recognise just how demanding an E-Commerce website can be. On average, these sites typically send more requests to the server due to the higher influx of traffic. If your current hosting plan is ill-equipped to handle these requests, this can lead to a slow site speed and even site downtime.

If you’re operating an E-Commerce website, then changing your hosting plan could have a significant impact on your site speed, especially if your website is resource intensive. Here at edirect, we will discuss your needs with you and create a hosting plan that is fully customised to your needs. We have access to high-speed servers that are incredibly reliable.

Equipped to support PrestaShop, Magento and Woo E-Commerce websites (to name just a few), our servers possess the necessary resources to ensure that your site runs at optimum efficiency. SSL integration is included as standard, and your site will be placed on a secure server. This ensures that when your customers click on your website, they will enjoy a user experience like no other.

SEO

Our in-house SEO team possess the skills and knowledge necessary to improve both your site and page speed. We ensure that your site demonstrates SEO best practices and can provide a number of services designed to streamline your website. From reducing the number of redirects to optimising images and videos, changes can be implemented to reduce overall load times across the board.

If you want to make the most of your shiny new E-Commerce website, then SEO is certainly the way to go. Websites, like anything else, will suffer reduced performance over time as changes are made, and content is added and removed from the site. Just as regular servicing keeps your car running at peak performance, so too does SEO for your website.

Get in touch

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article, and you may be finding yourself a little overwhelmed, not to worry as edirect are here to help. Whether you would like to discuss ways to increase conversion optimisation, enquire about a new website, request SEO or evaluate your hosting requirements, we are here to help.

Simply pick up the phone and give us a call today on 01202 798777 and you’ll be put through to the person best qualified to handle your request. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have relating to any of our services or the new tools mentioned above and will be happy to walk you through the process should you require this.

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