Mobile Speed Has Become a Landing Page Factor for Google Search and Ads
It’s become clear that online consumers don’t tolerate slow mobile experiences. When mobile pages take more than 3 seconds to load, they’re abandoned more than half the time. This, of course, leads to massive missed opportunities for many businesses when it comes to mobile speed.
Google Search and Ads teams recently announced a pair of new speed initiatives to help improve users’ experience online. The two ideas recommend that developers and site owners give more consideration to user-centric performance metrics. They also suggest using tools such as PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse, along with real-world data to create strategies for improving user experience.
Speed is Now a Ranking Signal for Mobile Searches
Consumers desire instant gratification, and today’s metrics show it. Data revealed that page loading time is important to users. Back in 2010, the Search team announced that speed would become a factor when ranking results in desktop searches, and now it’s a factor in mobile searches as well.
For website developers, now is the time to incorporate speed tools. Evaluate your page’s performance and think about how speed might affect your user’s experience. It can also be helpful to begin measuring real-world user-centric performance metrics
When evaluating performance, make sure to check PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse. Pagespeed Insights is an online tool that measures your site’s speed field data and provides suggestions for how to improve it.
The Mobile Speed Score
Speed goes hand-in-hand with online advertising – the faster the landing page, the better the ROI. The mobile speed score, which was introduced by the Ads team, gauges mobile speed with a 1-10 measuring system (10 being fastest). Based on real-world user experience data, it considers a variety of factors. For instance, monitors the relationship between potential conversion rates and page speed, which helps to show which landing pages perform at a satisfactory speed and which don’t.
We’ve made tools available to help your organization strategize around speed. Speed Scorecard will allow you to compare mobile site speed while Impact Calculator helps to estimate revenue impact if you decide to invest in speed for your mobile site.
Studio Fox Design’s Approach
You should also evaluate your use of JavaScript and images. According to data from HTTP Archive and Chrome User Experience Report, JavaScript and images are the biggest contributors to page weights that affect load times. Especially JavaScript libraries like jQuery which have been popularized and widely used for some time now. We have successfully implemented a plan to increase site speed and functionality with up-to-date best practice standards for our client Olimex Energy. Our practices steer clear of outdated libraries like jQuery and we use coding practices that increase PageSpeed scores.
Optimize Your Operation
Therefore, optimizing your mobile experience could help prevent consumers from leaving your site prematurely. In turn, you could see higher user engagement, ROI and conversions – all reasons to invest more effort in improving performance. Learn more about what Fox Studio Design can do to improve your page speed scores.
