With mobile now overtaking desktop in the way that people access the web and Google’s mobile-first algorithm, websites that are able to deliver fast, effortless experiences will reap the benefits.
In late 2016, Google started testing its planned shift to looking primarily at mobile content, rather than desktop, when deciding how to rank results.
According to Google research:
The average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds, yet 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Consumers are increasingly impatient. And mobile conversion rates are lower than desktop. This is because the majority of mobile sites are slow and bloated with too many elements.
The probability of a consumer navigating away from a website increases exponentially as page load time increases.
Source: Google/SOASTA Research, 2017
There are some easy ways to boost your page speed by simply compressing images and text. This can be done by optimising images to their exact size before uploading or by using image compression plugins. If you are on WordPress, have a look at this article by wpmudev.org.
It’s also worth reviewing each page on your website to assess if the images you are using are really necessary, and keep it as simple as possible without compromising your branding and message. Less is more.
You can test your mobile friendliness and mobile page speed using Google’s Test My Site tool. It also gives you the option of receiving a free report to help you improve your score. This shows just how much Google is focusing on mobile speed now and it’s important to get this right before the new algorithm is fully rolled out.
