If you’re a website owner, our website load time statistics will make you place the page speed as your top priority! That’s because today you will learn how page speed affects:
- Customer engagement
- Conversion rates
- Bounce time
- Google search ranking
- Your revenue
Furthermore, we’ll go over the basics about the page load time as well as the averages for different types of web pages.
As a result, you’ll know whether you should work on the average page load time for your website to achieve the highest possible engagement!
Top Stats & Facts (Editor’s Picks)
- Customer engagement can increase with just 0.1 second site speed improvement
- Websites that perform faster on mobile devices bring 75% more revenue
- The average page load time in 2019 was 15 seconds
- Around 37% of users leave a page that takes more than 5 seconds to load
- 70% of visitors claim that page speed affects their willingness to buy
- If page load time goes from 1 to 5 seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 90%
- The desktop page load time should be under 3 seconds
- The mobile page load time should be under 5 seconds
Page Speed Insights
Here are some essential insights on page speed as well as the recommended load time for websites. You will also learn the importance of working on your websites’ speed and how visitors respond to it.
1. Customer engagement can increase with just 0.1 second site speed improvement.
(Think with Google)
An eBay case study shown in the popular “Milliseconds Make Millions” study analyzed the correlation between site speed and customer engagement. They concluded that just a slight improvement in the website loading speed leads to an 0.5% increase in the Add to Cart count. That’s a result of faster load time which makes customers view more pages and transact more.
2. Websites that perform faster on mobile devices bring 75% more revenue.
(Huckabuy)
Compared to the slow-performing websites, the faster websites bring 327% more revenue on mobile phones. When it comes to desktops, fast rendering sites gain 212% more revenue.
3. Google recommended page load time is under 2 seconds.
(Blue Corona, YouTube)
Ideally, the page load time should be anywhere between 1 and 3 seconds. However, Google aims at half a second. John Mueller, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, claims that website speed is definitely a ranking factor in Google search.
4. Web pages that loaded in 2.4 seconds had a conversion rate of 1.9%.
(Huckabuy)
The conversion rate refers to the number of visitors divided by the number of actual sales. We are giving you data from research on website load time statistics that have shown faster pages leading to a higher conversion rate. In case the website needs 3.3 seconds to load, the conversion rate is 0.4% lower.
5. Websites with 5.7+ seconds of load time have a conversion rate of only 0.6%.
(Huckabuy)
At 4.2 seconds, the conversion rate is 0.4% higher. Moreover, websites with 3.3 seconds of load time have a rate of 1.5%.
The Average Page Load Time 2019
If you want to know whether the marketers worked on the page load time in recent years, we need to compare the numbers from 2019 and 2020. So, in this section, you will get the info on the website load time from previous years.
6. The average page load time in 2019 was 15 seconds.
(Unbounce)
A few years ago, 34% of websites had a load time of 11 to 20 seconds. In around 46% of sites, users had to wait for 6 to 10 seconds for a page to load fully. In addition, website speed statistics show that about 13% of websites had a 4 to 5 seconds load time.
7. In 2019, 57% of people would consider leaving a page that takes longer to load.
(Unbounce)
More than half of internet users will contemplate leaving a particular page if it takes them more than 3 seconds to see it. That leads to the conclusion that increasing the website speed can increase traffic.
8. Around 37% of users leave a page that takes more than 5 seconds to load.
(Unbounce)
Thus, it comes as no surprise that the top-ranking websites on Google had the shortest time it takes for the page to load. It sat on less than 3 seconds in 2019.
9. 70% of visitors claim that page speed affects their willingness to buy.
(Unbounce)
That is why Google urges site owners to work on their page speed. However, the Unbounce research uncovered that the majority of marketers don’t believe that website speed is a priority.
10. About 30% of phone users would wait 4 to 6 seconds before closing a page.
(Neil Patel)
Another research from 2019 shows that only 16% of mobile users would wait from 11 to 15 seconds for a page to load fully. That’s concerning as the average page loading time is much higher – around 20 seconds. However, on the upside, only 3% would be willing to wait less than 1 second before closing a website.
11. Around 30% of Android users are more patient than IOS owners when it comes to website speed.
(Unbounce)
Around 64% of Android and 36% of IOS users would wait up to 3 seconds for a page to load. What’s more, 61% of Android owners were willing to wait up to 13 seconds. However, the number sat at only 36% for IOS users.
12. Website load speed for the healthcare industry was around 5.4 seconds.
(Blue Corona)
The Healthcare industry had the fastest website page loading time in 2019. With 5.5 seconds, media and entertainment came right after healthcare. The finance industry also had a quicker load time—5.9 seconds.
13. The technology industry’s average page load was around 6.3 seconds in 2019.
(Blue Corona)
Out of all industries examined by Unbounce, technology had the worst load time. For example, the automotive and retail industries’ load time was 6.3 seconds, while travel sat at 6 seconds.
Website Speed Statistics 2020
Let’s take a look at some newer speed statistics. You’ll find out the average load time for 2020 on various devices and how that waiting time affects visitors’ engagement level.
14. If page load time goes from 1 to 5 seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 90%.
(Think with Google)
In case users have to wait up to 3 seconds for your page to load, the possibility of them bouncing is around 32%. Furthermore, if websites take a long time to load, as long as up to 10 seconds, that results in a 123% higher chance of a bounce.
15. Sites that take longer than 8.7 seconds to load on a desktop are among the worst-performing websites.
(Littledata)
Unlike them, the best 20% of websites need less than 3 seconds to load fully. So if your site takes less than 2.4 seconds, you are in the top 10%.
16. The average time for the desktop page to load in 2020 was 4.5 seconds.
(Littledata, Littledata)
According to the statistics presented in this article, one can realize that the average page load time benchmark is not ideal. On the other hand, mobile pages need around 5 seconds to load fully.
17. 10% of websites take only 2.7 seconds to load on mobile devices.
(Littledata)
Furthermore, less than 3.4 seconds wait time is also great. Users wait only 3 seconds for their page on 20% of sites. For mobile devices, anything longer than 7.4 seconds is considered unsatisfactory performance. About 20% of websites have a problem with this kind of wait time.
Web Page Load Times Standards, Acceptable Speed for Achieving the Best Engagement
We already mentioned the correlation between the website speed and the visitors’ engagement. So, in this section, you will read about the ideal load time for desktop and mobile devices. In addition, you will find out whether there should be any difference between the speed of regular and ecommerce websites.
18. The desktop page load time should be under 3 seconds.
(Sprout24)
Experts agreed that to boost engagement, the page load time should be 3 seconds or less, according to website load time statistics. Moreover, the server response time shouldn’t be over 2 seconds. Ideally, the domain lookup time is supposed to be from 0.15 to 1 second.
19. The mobile page load time should be under 5 seconds.
(Sprout24)
Based on the statistics shown above, we know that mobile phones are a bit slower than desktops. That is why the standards for their speed are lower.
20. The load time of ecommerce websites should be lower than 2 seconds.
(Semrush, Portent)
In the first 5 seconds, the page load time abandonment rate increases by an average of 4.4% for every second of delay. Furthermore, in the first 9 seconds, the rates follow an average of 2.1% with each second potential customers have to wait. A conversion rate follows the abandonment rate. As the main purpose of this kind of website is selling goods or services, you must keep conversion rates as high as possible.
Website Speed Statistics, the Bottom Line
There you have it—all the info you need to comprehend the importance of website load time for your business! Besides the newer stats, we gathered the ones from 2019 and 2020 to give you the full picture. Moreover, we incorporated the page speed standards that you should aim for while you’re working on speeding up your website.
In case you deem your site as too slow, you shouldn’t worry. You have various options online for speeding up your pages, such as compression, reducing redirects, improving server response time, optimizing images, and so on. Good luck!
People Also Ask
The website load time depends on the hosting server, page design and elements, browser, bandwidth, and the type of the device. But, in most cases, the load time should not be longer than two seconds. Google is aiming to have a load time of less than a second. That’s because less load time means better engagement and a higher conversion rate.
According to recommendations by Google, a response time of a website should be under 200 milliseconds. In fact, sites should aim for anything lower than 100 milliseconds. On the other hand, a website that takes longer than 500ms has a pretty lousy response time. Still, there are ways to increase the response time, such as using reliable web hosting, configuring caching, optimizing databases, and so on.
Many websites will allow you to enter an URL of a site to check its loading time. For example, you can go to the Developers section on Google and choose PageSpeed Insights. After you click on that option, you will be able to copy the URL of your website. You will then receive its insights and analytics, which include the loading time.
The numbers for the website load time tell us that the average time desktop users wait for their page to load fully is around 4.5 seconds. The load time is a bit longer for mobile users, and it’s usually over 5 seconds. When it comes to the wait time, every second counts. That is why a lot of businesses make shortening the website load time one of their priorities.
A reason why a website takes a long time to load might be as simple as having an issue with the local network connection. So, before panicking, you should use another network to access the website. If the issue persists, look for a culprit elsewhere. According to website load time statistics, other common reasons for this problem could be the amount of information in the database and slow web hosting.
