You have probably left a website because it took too long to load. So have your customers. The question is how many, and what you can do about it. Here is what the research says.
The headline number
Google and SOASTA Research reported in 2017 that 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load [1]. That is a 2017 study, and phones and networks have improved since. But the lesson has held up: people do not wait, and a slow site loses the visitors you paid or worked hard to attract.
Why it matters more on a phone
South Africa had 127 million cellular mobile connections at the end of 2025, equal to 196% of the population, according to DataReportal [2]. Most of your customers are searching on a phone, often on a mobile network rather than fast Wi-Fi. A page that feels fine on your office computer can crawl on a phone in a busy area.
What makes a small business site slow
- Oversized images. A photo straight from a phone camera can be several megabytes. It should be resized and compressed before it goes online.
- Too many add-ons. Every plugin, widget and tracking script adds weight.
- Cheap, crowded hosting. If your site shares a struggling server, everything slows down.
- Heavy templates. Some site builders load far more code than a simple business site needs.
How we build for speed
We build custom sites with modern tools that load only what each page needs, size and compress images, and keep the page simple. You can read about it on our development service page. After launch, our Ongoing Care service includes performance monitoring, so a site that was fast on launch day stays fast.
Test your own site
Open your website on your phone, on mobile data, and count. If it takes more than a few seconds before you can read and tap something, you have a problem worth fixing. If you would like us to take a look, send us a message or read our FAQ to see how we work.
