Did you know that a whopping 53% of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load? That's right – you could be losing over half your potential customers before they even see your beautiful homepage! 😱
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And it's not just about lost customers. A slow website can also tank your SEO efforts, increase bounce rates (people leaving your site quickly), and decrease conversions. If you care about getting found online and turning visitors into paying customers, you need to care about site speed.
The Power of a Speedy Site on Mobile Traffic: Case Study
Don't just take my word for it. We recently worked with a local wedding venue whose website was struggling with painfully slow mobile load times. From within Google Search Console, none of their mobile pages were passing Core Web Vitals (an SEO signal Google uses for site speed and usability).
Mobile Core Web Vitals - No Pages Passing Case Study
After implementing key site speed enhancements (browser caching and image size reduction) - all pages passed Google's Core Web Vitals.
Mobile Core Web Vitals -All Pages Passing Case Study
And, as a result, organic mobile traffic skyrocketed by 78% year-over-year! And mobile organic impressions in Google search results also shot up by an incredible 163%. 🚀
After Website Speed Enhancements - Mobile Traffic Improved (Case Study)
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SEO - increase traffic and leads from Google
Content Marketing - from a data-driven topic strategy to awesome content
Paid Ads - Google Ads and Paid Social Media
The lesson here is clear:
Faster pages = more traffic, more sales, lower expenses, and higher profits.
So, are you ready to speed things up? Here are the top 5 easy fixes you can implement right now to give your website a much-needed performance boost.
Tools for Measuring Site Speed
Google Core Web Vitals
From within Google Search Console, scroll down to Core Web Vitals. Here, you will see your website's mobile and desktop scores.
Where to Find Google Core Web Vitals
Page Speed Insights
This tool is accessed by visiting: https://pagespeed.web.dev/
Just enter your website's URL, and you will get stats on speed performance.
Top 5 Quick Ways to Turbocharge Your Mobile Site Speed
1
Slim Down Those Images
Images are often the biggest culprits when it comes to slow loading times. Resize any images that are larger than necessary (aim for under 100 kilobytes each) and make sure the dimensions of the image match the space where it will be displayed. Tools like Canva or Photoshop can help you compress your images without sacrificing quality. The best file format for saving images is jpeg or Webp. (related post here on Image Optimization for SEO.)
2
Ditch the Carousels
Those fancy image carousels might look cool, but they're notorious for slowing down websites. Not to mention, they're not great for user experience either. Consider replacing them with a single, static image with your value proposition.
3
Minify Your Code
Think of your website's code as a cluttered closet – full of unnecessary stuff that's just taking up space. Minifying your code is like cleaning out that closet, removing extra characters, spaces, and comments that aren't needed for your website to function. Many free online tools and plugins can do this for you automatically.
Example of Minifying Code
4
Leverage Browser Caching
This is like giving your repeat customers VIP access to your website. When someone visits your site for the first time, their browser downloads all the necessary files. With browser caching enabled, the browser stores some of these files on the visitor's device, so the next time they visit, your site loads much faster.
5
Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider
The old adage "you get what you pay for" holds true here. Cheap hosting often means overcrowded servers and slow loading times. Invest in a reputable hosting provider that can offer fast and reliable performance.
Bonus Tip: Consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN is like having multiple locations for your business. It stores copies of your website's files on servers around the world, so when someone visits your site, they're automatically directed to the server closest to them. This means faster loading times for everyone, no matter where they're located. A popular CDN is Cloudflare.
So those are the top five quick and easy ways to speed up your website. Optimize your images, get rid of unnecessary image carousels, minify your code, utilize browser caching, using reliable and fast hosting, and consider using a CDN to deliver your images, video, and PDFs more quickly.
