Telescope: Everything You Need to Know About Search

Welcome to this edition of Telescope on Search, our monthly newsletter devoted to
search. Our goal is to offer a regular, quick-browse e-newsletter with useful
information, tips, and news of the latest developments on Site Search, Search Engine
Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and site usability. If you have any feedback
or questions please direct them to newsletter@sli-systems.com.

In this issue:

Do Slow-Loading Web Pages Scare Away Your Customers?
Partner Spotlight: Weblinc
News

Do Slow-Loading Web Pages Scare Away Your Customers?

Shaun Ryan

CEO, SLI Systems

Slow page-load times are never a good thing when your revenue depends on site visitors finding the information they need as quickly as possible. Now slow load times can also negatively impact your search marketing efforts – Google recently incorporated page load times into its Quality Score metrics for Google AdWords campaigns(if your Web pages load slowly, you may pay more for your ads).

The time it takes to load a Web page is a make-or-break element of an e-commerce site. For site visitors, a positive experience is a fast experience. If they are searching or browsing for products, and pages load too slowly, they can’t view as much merchandise – which means they’ll buy less, or nothing at all. Keynote’s recent U.S. Holiday Impact Study, which measured service levels for online retailers over the 2007 holiday shopping season, found that when sites slow down significantly, customers are more likely to abandon their product searches.

Fast performance isn’t just about the speed of the page load – it also encompasses the time it takes to navigate through information. In addition, fast page loading is particularly critical when it comes to search, as site visitors tend to scan search results, instead of actually reading them line by line.

At SLI Systems, we’ve contributed to the goal of faster-loading pages with recent improvements to the speed of our search. For companies with complex search needs, gains in page-loading speed can be significant: One of our customers with a complex search has been able to improve average page load times from 2 seconds to less than half a second.

Here are some other strategies to consider if you are trying to improve the speed of your site;

Check for good page weight, especially for images – make sure images are formatted appropriately.
Provide height and width tags for images so the browser can present the page while loading the images.
Regularly review the performance of your site – check from home where you may have a more typical (i.e., slower) Internet connection.
Ensure that your site hosting is appropriate for managing your site traffic needs.
Check for newer versions of software (for example, Web server or e-commerce platforms) for performance enhancements.
Consider options that may improve performance, such as accelerators or caching.
Confirm that your web server/platform is compressing HTML/JS/CSS – this can reduce the amount of network traffic required, therefore making the page load faster.

Partner Spotlight: Weblinc

We’re excited this month to focus our Partner Spotlight on Weblinc, which has developed flexible and scalable e-commerce solutions on its WebLinc Direct platform for hundreds of companies over the last 14 years. WebLinc services include graphic design, branding, information architecture, database development, back-end integration, and checkout/cart functionality. WebLinc’s user-friendly Product and Content Management System (PCMS) allows even non-technical staff to create and manage discounting and promotion tools, as well as merchandising.

SLI and WebLinc have worked together to build e-commerce storefronts for many customers, including Oneida, and Heronswood. “SLI search, and the expertise and commitment to service that the SLI team brings to the table, make them one of our most trusted partners,” said Darren Hill, chief strategist and co-founder of WebLinc. “SLI is easy to work with, and they offer our joint clients outstanding value for unique, intuitive functionality.”

If you’d like to learn more about how SLI and WebLinc can help you build an effective and profitable e-commerce storefront, please contact us.