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More and more people are choosing to use mobile devices instead of laptops to browse the internet. This means we’ve all heard about the importance of responsive web design (when a site automatically adapts to the device it’s viewed on), but what happens when website load time is still too long?

Even though the time spent waiting for a slower page to load is only a matter of seconds, it can be incredibly frustrating to visitors. Sites should load just as quickly when viewed on a mobile device as on a desktop for an optimal user experience. Did I mention this counts for SEO?

According to Hubspot, the average load time for websites they assessed in a study was almost four seconds. That’s more than enough time to make a visitor click away. This wait causes users physical stress at levels comparable to watching a horror movie!

So how do you improve website load time for your mobile website?

Make Sure it is Responsive

A responsive site is one that automatically adjusts the way it’s displayed based on the size of the screen used to view it. This is incredibly beneficial for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is mobile load time. Responsive sites load faster than ones with dedicated mobile sites because they don’t involve any URL redirects.

Check the Size of Your Images

Extremely large visual components of your website, like videos or heavy images, can account for a large portion of the lag. Your images may only show up in certain dimensions on the page, but their actual size may be much, much larger. Resizing, cropping, or compressing your images to a more appropriate, but still high-quality size will do wonders to improve your website load time. You can also make your videos load in the background to save time. 

Remove Unnecessary Parts of your Code

This process, sometimes called “minifying”, can have a drastic effect on the load time of a given page. This is because it lessens the time it takes for the code to be processed. As a general rule, you should be providing your visitors with the most essential and relevant information. This should also apply to the way your site works in the background. The process of minifying shouldn’t be a huge project, but it should be done by a developer so no essential parts of the code are touched.

Put Your Website on a Content Delivery Network

Content Delivery Networks, also called CDN’s, are systems of servers that deliver content to users based on their geographic locations. This means they decrease the distance data has to travel to reach the visitor, in turn decreasing the amount of time it will take for the data to load.  

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