Are you aware of how fast your website is on mobile devices? Probably not, but don’t worry, Google has a tool that allows you to test the speed of your mobile site. Now that you now how fast it loads, you probably want to make it faster. Why you might ask? Well, 53% of mobile users leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Therefore, it is imperative that you reduce your load speed as much as possible to retain visitors & your web design can play a vital role in this regard. There are numerous ways you can achieve this.

1. Limit JavaScript

While JavaScript may add cool effects to your website, it also slows it down. It doesn’t matter whether it is the desktop or mobile site, JavaScript will have an impact on the site’s load time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t use JavaScript, there are a few tricks that can limit its impact on the site’s speed:
• Asynchronous JavaScript: This is a type of JavaScript loads all the scrip at once rather than one by one, which improves the speed prompts the script to load faster.
• Move the script to the bottom: Browsers load your website according to its code so as soon as they reach the JavaScript, they won’t load anything else until it is completed. If the script is moved to the bottom of the page, that allows the browser to load all the content and HTML aspect of the website quickly and then move on to the JavaScript. Visitors can easily browse your website and not have to wait for the information to load.

2. Optimize the images on the site

The size of images tends to be one of the biggest problems when it comes to a site’s speed. Images today are much bigger in size than ever before. Which means, when they are downloaded, they need a little more time. But they are also an important visual aspect of the site, so you can’t get rid of them altogether just to make your site faster.

Which is why you need to optimize the images you use. Before you upload them, you need to crop them to the size you want and compress them. By compressing them, you do reduce the quality but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue since most cameras take high-resolution images anyways. Even if you were to compress them to the smallest size possible, they would appear clear on mobile sites. Doing so allows you to drastically reduce the size of the image and enable your site to load faster.

3. Lazy loading

The wonderful thing about using a content management system such as WordPress is that there are numerous options of plugins to enhance your website. Lazy Load is a plugin that enables lazy loading on your website, both desktop and mobile. What it does is, it loads all the content on the website first and then moves on to images and other aspects. This enables visitors to read through the content seconds after requesting for your site. Therefore, they don’t have to wait for the whole site to load to get the information they need.

4. Limit the number of plugins on the site

With so many plugins available, site owners can go overboard and install plugins they don’t necessarily need. Each plugin you add puts more weight on the site and its code. Which means that when a user accesses the site, the plugin needs to be loaded before the design does. It is important that you only have plugins that are actually required and deactivate those that are not necessary. Also, make sure that the plugins you use are always up to date otherwise they can slow down your website.

5. Enable caching

Websites that are visited by a user more than once can load faster it caching is enabled. The process stores the most frequently requested files of the site on the user’s device. With the files stored on the device, the site will load much faster. Therefore, you need to enable caching. For those with a WordPress website, there are plugins for caching such as Cache Enabler.

It is important that you meet the expectations of mobile users by not only making your website responsive to mobile devices but ensure it loads within 3 seconds. The best way to do that is to follow the 5 tips listed above to improve your site load speed. They will improve the user’s experience on your mobile site which of course increases the chances of them opting for your services.