There is a silent killer of growing online: your website speed.

Most people think that a slow site is just a minor problem, but it actually has a direct impact on your online success. You literally have two seconds before a few things start to happen that could set you back. If you want to be found online, and maybe even spending money to do so, this will be helpful.

So, there is a silent killer of growing online: your website speed.

Here's why:

• 47% of people expect an average site to load in under 2 seconds.
• For B2B websites, a site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds
• 70% of consumers say page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.

The key takeaway is that consumers, businesses, and people in general expect websites to be fast. And that’s just people!

Remember, today we also need to make search and AI engines happy because they use page speed as a major ranking factor. If you have a slow website, search engines are less likely to put your site in front of their audiences, regardless of how good your content is.

So how do you find out where your website stands?

The first step is to run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights.

This free tool gives you a performance score and core web vitals. Pay close attention to your mobile performance and desktop performance; mobile should be the primary focus, as 70-80% of all traffic is on mobile devices.

Next, you should fix the low-hanging fruit, either by yourself or with a developer.

The most common issues we see across our 300 or so customers are image sizes and removing unnecessary tools or plugins. For instance, if you have several old tracking tools or pixels loading before your main content, you’ll want to consolidate or load them at the bottom of the code. Websites read code from top to bottom, so ensure that the essential information is presented first.

The lats thing is to ensure you have a local host.

If your target audience is in Australia, it's best to use a local hosting provider. The distance between your website and the data center matters.

For example, if your website fetches data from Singapore, this could introduce a delay. Keeping your data local to cities like Sydney or Melbourne can offer instant speed wins.