Optimizing for Mobile Site Speed Improves Sales

Can you imagine a day without a phone? Most people run their business, manage schedules, socialize, and handle daily chores using their mobile phones.

With 125 Million U.S. consumers fidgeting on their phones while handling other tasks, do you think they have the patience to wait for the page to load?

Studies show that 40% of them will switch to competitors if they have to wait. An unresponsive mobile page load can lead to frustrated customers, page abandonment, and lost revenue. Here are some other ways to optimize your site for mobile users.

Reasons for Slow Mobile Page Loads

There are various explanations for the slow response times. Some of the most common causes are:

• Bad file optimization
• Excessive resource files
• Uncompressed web pages
• Large image files
• Too many files or elements (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Images)
• Out-of-date software and plugins

Cutting corners by using low-quality or shared website hosting could be the reason for the page slowing down.

Poorly optimized image files, external media (YouTube, etc.), and using too much flash can bog down the loading times.

Speed up page load by reducing the file sizes and number of files. Keep detailed graphics, plugins, and scripts to a minimum.

Consequences of Slow Site Speed

If your mobile site speed is sluggish, you’ll irritate your customers and lose business.

According to Kissmetrics when a website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, an astounding 40% of people will give up and go elsewhere.

The bottom line is that complex pages increase bounce rates, lower your ranking, and reduce conversion rates.

So, what can you do?

Make Your Mobile Pages Load Faster

You know that Google will be crawling, indexing, and ranking websites based on mobile page load times. Your customers demand speed too. Any expert BigCommerce SEO company that works with saas systems, or any Shopify developer that is looking to squeeze out the best conversion rates will tell you the same thing; loading speed and eCommerce SEO matter.

Several things can be done to improve your site’s mobile loading time.

Testing for Speed

In order to fix the problem, you need to understand what it is. Performing multiple speed tests will help you isolate the issues.

Here are a few tools that can help you:

SpeedTest.net – A free tool that shows current upload and download speeds. It’s more of a test for your connection than page load speed, but it’s a good starting point.

Page Speed Insights – This tool, provided by Google, runs using data in the Chrome browser. You may have to activate specific features for it to provide exact page speed data.

Pingdom – Test your entire site at once and receive valuable insight into all areas that could be improved. You get a detailed report that lets developers and designers home in on the problem areas.

Be sure to test during peak and off-peak times and compare different testing sites to get a complete picture.

Keep Image Files Small

Image files can be one of the biggest reasons for a slow loading page. Trim the files down to a maximum of 1,000 pixels before uploading them to your page. Use a free editor like Pixlr to cut them down to size or other image editing programs like Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, and JPEG-Optimizer.

Eliminate the hero shot, slideshow banners. They look good on a desktop monitor but can load like molasses on mobile. Stick to one optimized hero image for faster loading times.

Content Delivery Network (CDN) For Global Business

A content delivery network caches common data in global network nodes in various servers around the world. When shoppers search from Asia or Europe, the site loads faster from local servers, offering a better UX and page rank from Google.

BigCommerce CDN is essential for worldwide eCommerce, especially if you have a custom store design. They have nodes in London, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Remove Excess Apps

Check to see if you actually use all the apps you have installed on your site. You may have forgotten a trial app or two which can slow things down. Run lean and mean with only the apps that generate sales and keep things moving.

BigCommerce Leads the Way by Offering Google AMP

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source project that enables mobile pages to render and open almost instantly. BigCommerce is the first eCommerce platform to have a native integration.

Incorporating AMP provides a double benefit.

The first factor is speed. Most AMP pages load in about a second, a significant advantage when people begin to leave after waiting for just three seconds.

Secondly, in July 2018, Google will begin using mobile site loading speed as part of its page ranking algorithm. By optimizing all mobile pages using AMP, you keep your customers and Google happy at the same time.

Some Advantages of Mobile Responsiveness

If you manage to incorporate all the tactics, we listed above, your site should run smoothly, with lightning-quick mobile pages. Here are the benefits you can expect.

• Improved SEO and higher page ranking
• Better customer experience
• Lower bounce rates and cart abandonment
• Faster loading times for all shoppers, including those outside of the U.S.
• Higher conversion rates

In 2017, mobile eCommerce or m-commerce accounted for 34.5% of online sales. It is expected to reach 53.9% by 2021 so AMP should be a critical part of your SEO upgrade.

With the considerable emphasis that Google puts on mobile site speed, it’s essential to optimize every page. Besides, it makes your store look professional and in touch with today’s shoppers. They will reward you for your efforts.