We live in a world where there is a need for speed for just about anything, especially when it concerns online connectivity. We want faster Internet connections. We want faster laptops, smartphones, and tablets. While we are fortunate to be alive in an era where we can easily get all of the above, we couldn’t say the same for many mobile websites that load rather slowly.
Now that the number of mobile users has overtaken desktop users, the need to optimize your mobile site has become even more urgent. Millions of people are using their smartphones and tablets to find products and services they need, and it has become imperative for website owners to do whatever they can to be, well, up to speed, or they will miss out on substantial business.
So if you own a website that takes forever to load on a mobile device, take a look at some of the best ways to speed it up and see if they would work for you.
Do Mobile SEO
With Google Mobile First Index update, the search engine will rank the search results using only the mobile-version of your website even when you are searching from a desktop. So this is a big deal and you will want to make sure your website’s mobile SEO is in perfect standing. You’d need to make sure the website doesn’t hide any content on mobile, it loads quickly preferably around 1 second and has a user experience that makes visitors spend as much time on it.
Test Your Site Speed First
Before you make any tweaks to your mobile website, you have to test its speed first. Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights which will give you an idea about your mobile site’s performance. This free tool may only work page by page, but at least it will tell you how well or how badly your site did. The tool will also tell you what to fix as well as what you should think about fixing.
Compress, Downsize, and Optimize Your Images
Images—huge ones—deserve a lot of the blame for the slow loading time of your mobile site. The thing is, images aren’t really that important on mobile devices. In fact, some webmasters just get rid of all images except for the business logo and the images necessary for menus. In any case, your images should be compressed and scaled specifically for mobile. The simpler and smaller the images, the better it would be for the mobile site speed.
Cut Down On or Avoid Redirects
Redirects slow down your site. If you click on a mobile link and it redirects someplace else, it slows the entire loading process down because the server will have to go to the page where the document that was supposed to be found in the original link now resides and retrieve the whole thing. If possible, avoid redirects altogether.
Avoid Custom Fonts
Custom fonts look great, but the code they require can be quite heavy and can bog everything down. There are custom fonts that use a lot of JavaScript, while some go for broke on CSS. If you’re going to have to use custom fonts, just use them when they’re necessary, like in headings.
AMP It Up
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project (AMP) offers a way for businesses to create mobile pages using ultra-minimalistic HTML. This project promises that once you activate AMP on your pages, your site will look good, perform well, and load really fast regardless of device or distribution platform.
Cut the Steps
It is typical for a website to make the user take about six or seven steps before they get to the point where they have to sign up for or buy something. How about cutting the steps between a customer and sale down to, say, three or four? With all the steps you eliminate, you will also be cutting down on the code and making the site lighter.
Go Easy on the Design
We all would love our website to be intricately and beautifully designed. However, an intricate and beautiful design also means heavy coding, and we have already mentioned above how a ton of code can slow down your website. So if possible, keep your web design simple, but eye-catching just the same.
Use Browser Caching
Today’s mobile browsers are capable of saving web data for later use on the smartphones and tablets themselves. If you activate browser caching, the mobile browser will do exactly that and vastly speed up loading time, particularly for popular sites.
These are just some of the ways you can speed up your mobile site. Give them a try and see how well they can work for you!
About The Author
Raluca Crasuleac is the SEO Manager at SEOPhoenix.net, a SEO company which helps businesses grow their revenue and achieve long-term success through cutting edge internet marketing. When not in the office, Raluca enjoys gourmet cooking and traveling with her dog.
