Or to be precise, spending less time on extra bells and whistles gives you more time to focus on the things that really matter. Less really is more – focus on the things that matter not the things that look clever speed and ease of navigation trump fancy graphics and sliders

The things that matter to your web page visitors and the things that matter to Google and the other search engines.

Number one on anybody’s list should of course be content – the game is lost if the visitor either can’t understand what you are all about or worse still can’t find what they are looking for. But content comes a close second to the most important parameter for a site visitor – the website speed. If they can’t see your site quickly on a mobile device these days the game is over for you – the best and freshest content in the world is useless if it doesn’t get seen!

In the world of instant communications and tweets, they want it NOW!

I recall reading some years ago, that a visitor took around 10 seconds to decide if your page was the one they were looking for – Somehow I feel that would be an optimistic prediction these days – I should say your average surfer has the time down to 5 seconds or below. I know, because I’m a browser and a surfer myself!

If you’ve buried the main point of your website somewhere beneath five paragraphs of text, either on a home page that boasts about how great you are, or on the products page that’s more than a single click away  – the chances are that your intended audience will disappear without even reading it!

All the visitors, analytics and paid for traffic in the world can’t fix that one!

Tip: If you already have a site, and you use Google Analytics, take a look at the ‘bounce rate’ numbers – they can be very illuminating indeed!

Extra Tip: Check out Google PageSpeed Insights to see how the biggest search engine ranks your website's performance.