The Impact of Poor-Performing Websites on User Experience
2 Min Read
Website performance supports user experiences and influences brand perception. While high Google Lighthouse testing scores reflect optimized performance, websites with low scores harm user engagement, trust, and satisfaction.
How Poor Website Performance Impacts UX
Poor-performing websites can profoundly impact user experiences, brand perception, and overall business success. Low Lighthouse scores often indicate underlying issues affecting how users interact with a website, leading to adverse outcomes.
Frustrated Visitors
Websites with low Lighthouse scores typically offer a subpar user experience, including slow page load times, navigation difficulties, and unresponsive design.
Website visitors have high expectations. They know a good user experience at first click. A B2B company should offer a digital experience as good as the best consumer websites, instead of merely striving for a lower benchmark set by its competitors.
High Bounce Rates
Low Lighthouse scores identify website performance issues that often produce high bounce rates. Visitors quickly leave the website in frustration due to slow loading times, which is a lost opportunity for a business with great products, services, and content.
Accessibility Barriers
Inadequate Lighthouse scores identify accessibility barriers that make it challenging for users with permanent or temporary disabilities to access and navigate the site. Users feel alienated and consider it discrimination, which can lead to a lawsuit based on the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar laws in other countries.
Negative Brand Perception
Users may perceive a poorly performing website as unprofessional or unreliable, leading to a loss of trust in the brand or business. This lack of confidence can deter users from completing transactions or engaging further with the website, impacting conversion rates and revenue. Users expect to experience the brand promise at every touch point, including on a company website.
Lost Leads or Sales
Poor performance can hinder users from completing desired actions, such as purchasing or filling out a contact form, leading to lower conversion rates and missed opportunities. Users are less likely to engage with a website that doesn’t meet their speed, functionality, and usability expectations.
Lower Website Security
In addition to the user experience challenges posed by low Lighthouse scores, poor-performing websites also face heightened security risks. Vulnerabilities such as outdated software, insecure connections, or lack of HTTPS encryption can expose user data to potential breaches, leading to fear, mistrust, and reputational damage.
Regularly Check And Optimize Lighthouse Scores
Regularly monitoring and optimizing Lighthouse scores is not just about technical performance—it’s about prioritizing user experience, building trust, and fostering positive brand interactions.
By addressing performance issues and ensuring a seamless online experience, businesses can enhance user satisfaction, drive engagement, and ultimately achieve long-term success.
After you run Lighthouse to get your scores, jot down your and your competitor’s scores on the free form below. We can discuss the results with you.
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FAQs
Lighthouse scores are metrics from Google that assess a website’s performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO, and User Experience. High scores (90-plus) indicate optimization success, while low scores reveal issues affecting engagement, accessibility, and perception.
Poor performance causes slow loading, unresponsive navigation, and frustrating interactions, leading to higher bounce rates and missed conversions.
It’s important to regularly check and improve your Lighthouse scores to keep your website running smoothly. High scores can help boost user experience and search rankings.
Low scores indicate issues like slow loading or unresponsive elements, which can frustrate users and cause them to leave quickly, increasing bounce rates while lowering engagement, conversions, or sales.
If your scores are low, start by following the recommendations given in your Lighthouse report. Optimizing images, fixing broken links, improving page loading times, and ensuring your site follows accessibility guidelines are just a few things you can do to improve your scores, boost user satisfaction, and stay competitive.