Speed Loss Calculator

Have you ever considered how your website speed (or lack of it) affects your website?
How does it affect your website revenue?
Speed Loss Calculator will give you a precise answer to those questions.

How did the Speed Loss Calculator idea was born?
With over five years of professional experience in website speed optimization, I have recognized a significant gap in the market: the absence of a comprehensive tool dedicated to calculating the impact of speed on website revenue.
There isn’t one on the market, so I’ve decided to develop it based on relevant research.

With it, I can easily show clients how much potential revenue they are wasting by not optimizing their websites’ speed. It’s not a matter of whether you can afford speed optimization; instead, ask yourself: Can you afford not to?

Surprisingly, there is not much quality research related to website speed optimization. Yes, we all know the importance of a pleasant UX for our visitors, but material regarding quantifying their worth depending on the actual speed of the website is quite limited.
But, I’ve found two reputable sources with quality research that Speed Loss Calculator could stand on.

WPservice.pro calculator uses two different methods. The first calculates revenue loss depending on the number of visitors, and the second is for e-commerce websites.
Why two methods? The research has shown that the conversion rates based on speed differ for non-commerce/e-commerce websites, and I wanted the calculator to be as precise as possible.

1. Calculate The Value of a Website – Monthly Visits method

Thanks to ironistic.com and their article, I’ve been able to get a fix on the first constant – the value of Organic Search Visitors.
This research is pretty old, so I’ve needed to recalculate it for the inflationary difference.

2. Conversion Rates Research – Monthly Revenue method

The other valuable article relevant to the Speed Loss Calculator is an article by Michael Wiegand on portent.com.

They looked at 100 million page views across 20 B2B and B2C sites for conversion data on a 30-day snapshot. In those 30 days, they recorded 5.6M sessions on sites ranging from major national travel brands to small, niche software-as-a-service companies.

Data Analysis Behind the Speed Loss Calculator

Those two pieces of research from reputable sources were merely foundations and stepping stones toward my goal. They were imperfect; I needed to interpret, analyze, fix errors, and broaden the data (Mr. Wiegand’s CR data stopped at 10 seconds. I’ve normalized and extrapolated it to 20 seconds for a more complete approach).

The research data suggests that there is no speed-related conversion drop up to a one-second page load time, and after that, the drop is more prominent on e-commerce websites. On these websites, the difference in CR between the 2s-1s range is almost 2x!
Furthermore, at 5s, CR drops nearly 6x, slowing the decline rate after 5s.

On non-commerce (Goal Conversion Rate) websites, the difference between the first 4 seconds is about 5% per second, making the CR decline after 4s 15%.
After 6s, the Goal Conversion Rate slows to 1%, or less, per second.

Speed Loss Calculator takes your input values, calculates real-time speeds, and translates this research data into actual numbers.

Here is one example of the e-commerce CR (Monthly Revenue) method:
If your website currently brings in 1000$ monthly, here are revenue loss numbers depending on the speed/CR:

• A 1-second page load time (or less) at a 3.05% conversion rate results in $1,000.00 revenue, equal to the max value of $1,000.00 = $0 revenue loss (max revenue-current revenue=revenue loss)
• A 2-second page load time at a 1.68% conversion rate results in a max revenue value of $1,815.48 and the resulting revenue loss of $815.48
• A 3-second page load time at a 1.12% conversion rate results in a max revenue value of $2,723.21 and the resulting revenue loss of $1,723.21
• A 4-second page load time at a 0.67% conversion rate results in a max revenue value of $4,552.24 and the resulting revenue loss of $3,552.24
• A 5-second page load time at a 0.53% conversion rate results in a max revenue value of $5,754.72 and the resulting revenue loss of $4,754.72

With each passing second, conversion rates (CR) and revenue plummet.

Which speed did we use?

As the portent.com research was unclear on which speed metric they used for their research, I’ve decided on the LCP as the most adequate one.

Conclusion

So far, speed has been considered part of the website’s UX and influences SERP. With the Speed Loss Calculator, WPservice.pro aims from another angle – revenue. Surprisingly, the impact of speed on the bottom line is primarily uncharted territory, and the SLC tool is the first step towards changing that.
It’s clear how speed directly impacts revenue; we have valid independent research data on that subject, and I’m convinced that we can expect more usable data with more precise numbers in the near future.
Check out our WordPress statistics post if you like raw data like I do.

A faster website also has an indirect impact by increasing the website’s SERP and visitor numbers, but that’s another matter.

Are you losing money by having an unoptimized speed of your website? Certainly.
That’s not even a valid question; a better one would be, how much? The SLC is simple on the outside but a complex and powerful tool with the answer.

SLC relies heavily on the research data and the values you input. As future research may bring new data, I’ll update it to keep it as relevant as possible.
Furthermore, not all websites are identical, and not all content areas have identical conversion rates. As with everything else, SLC is imperfect, but it’s the first and the best tool in this niche.
It serves the purpose with the cards it has, just like we all do.

FAQ