When creating your own website, pay close attention to how fast the mobile version of your site loads. Google currently ranks mobile page speed as a minor factor in search results, but this is likely to change in the near future.

Let me lay out the facts:

Google started its mobile-first indexing initiative in July 2019 because more users access the web through mobile than any other device type.

On average, mobile websites take 15 seconds to load, according to research from Google. However, if you make visitors wait 10 seconds or more, the bounce rate will increase significantly.

If you want to improve your mobile loading times so that you can attract visitors and turn them into customers, use the following methods.

How to improve your mobile page speed in 10 steps or less

If you want to keep:

• Mobile click-through rates in search results high…
• Mobile website bounce rates low…
• Mobile conversion rates always on the up and up…

Then, mobile page speed isn’t something to take lightly.

Here are the steps to take in order to improve page loading times on mobile:

Step 1: Choose fast web hosting

If you want your mobile page to load quickly, you need to have a reliable web host.

Even though it’s not entirely the web hosting company’s fault if its servers take too long to load a website for mobile visitors, you can’t help but think that it’s their responsibility. It’s up to the user to do their research on the provider and its infrastructure to make sure that they’re choosing a plan that will help speed up loading times.

Here are some things to think about:

Where are the web host’s servers located?

If there is a low concentration of servers in your area or the area of your target audience, loading times will be slow.

A good idea is to look for hosts that offer top service in your country or area. Here are some good places to start:

• Best WordPress Hosting Europe
• Best WordPress Hosting UK
• Best WordPress Hosting India
• Best WordPress Hosting Australia
• Best WordPress Hosting OVERALL

If you’re unhappy with the location of your web hosting servers, you can supplement your hosting with a CDN (Content Delivery Network). A leading CDN provider can help reduce the physical distance between your website and its visitors.

Think about using a CDN in addition to your web hosting if your website will have global reach.

Does the web host offer niche hosting?

For example, if you are creating a WordPress website, you should research which WordPress hosts have servers that are optimized for the content management system.

eCommerce websites that experience a large volume of traffic need a hosting solution that can keep up with the demand. A top eCommerce hosting solution will be able to process mobile traffic and transactions quickly.

There are hosting solutions available for Joomla and Drupal if you are not using WordPress as your content management system.

Did you purchase managed hosting?

Working with a provider that knows your content management system (CMS) well can be beneficial, as they can help you maintain your website.

Website maintenance is important for keeping a website running smoothly and quickly. If you can delegate some of the maintenance to a host, you will have less to worry about.

If you don’t go for managed hosting, don’t worry. The tips below show you how to do these performance optimizations yourself.

Is the web host known for technology stacks optimized for mobile page speed?

The technology stack being used by the host is something else to consider.

• Do they use NGINX?
• Are the servers equipped with caching?
• Are CDN upgrades available?
• Do servers run on the latest versions of software?

The speed of servers can be improved in various ways, so it is advisable to research these potential improvements before choosing a hosting plan.

Is your hosting plan scalable?

What is the hosting plan’s scalability?

While a great mobile experience is important to get more traffic, it is also important to have a web host that can handle an increase in traffic.

Step 2: Update to the latest version of PHP

The open-source scripting language PHP is used to form the backbone of a WordPress website and its functions. Even if you don’t do any coding with PHP, it always exists at the server level and can impact mobile page speed if it’s not updated.

The latest versions of PHP can process more HTTP requests simultaneously per second.

When you set up a WordPress website, your web host should automatically select the latest version of PHP. Unless you have managed PHP updates enabled, this is something you’ll have to keep tabs on.

You can easily update PHP on your own.

Log into your web hosting account

The organization of every host’s control panel is different, so what is seen by you will not be exactly what is seen on the host’s end and will change from host to host.

Review the current PHP version

Look for the current PHP version used.

SiteGround automatically updates the server to the latest version, but still informs users of which version is being used.

If you need to make any changes, open the list of available PHP versions and select the one you want to use:

Step 3: Implement caching at all levels

As users, we’re familiar with caching at the browser level. It’s usually when we can’t see updated content on a web page that we turn to these settings:

When users delete the stored version of a site from their browser, the latest version of the site will appear the next time they visit it.

Caching allows a website to store data locally on a user’s device so that it doesn’t have to retrieve it from the server each time it is needed. This can speed up the performance of the website as well as reduce the load on the server.

If servers are able to cache data and create static copies of pages that have not been changed, they will be able to work more efficiently.

You can use two resources to enable caching.

Enable server caching (benefits both desktop and mobile page speed)

This isn’t something you should have to worry about. Like we said before, a web host that cares about performance will have server caching built into your web hosting plan.

To make sure you have all the server-side caching that you need, look it up in your hosting control panel. Like PHP, it should be easy to find:

Enable website, database, and object caching

WordPress has a number of different caching plugins available that will allow you to activate other forms of caching that you may need.

This allows you to avoid becoming overwhelmed by all the different options for caching (for example, website, browser, database, opcode, memcache, etc.)

Caching plugins, often provide other speed-up settings (that we’ll discuss in the next tip).

If you upgrade, you’ll usually get access to features that improve performance, like image optimization, CDN configuration, and mobile caching.

Step 4: Implement lazy loading on your images and videos

The final key to image optimization for mobile devices is known as “lazy loading.” This technique involves delaying the loading of images that are not currently being viewed by the site’s visitors. By doing this, you can minimize the amount of data that needs to be loaded, which can help improve your site’s performance.

You can improve the loading time for your website’s images and videos by using the free Lazy Load by WP Rocket plugin. If you are already using WP Rocket, you don’t need this plugin since the lazy load feature is already included.

Step 5: Optimize image delivery with a CDN

This is done by using multiple servers in different locations rather than just one server. This way, when a user in one part of the world requests data, it can be routed to the server closest to them, rather than the server in one central location.

RocketCDN can help optimize the delivery of your images on mobile devices.

Step 6: Improve time to first byte

The goal is to show visitors on mobile something right away so they don’t think your website is slow. Creating a good first impression is key.

If you want your website to run quickly, you need to have a hosting provider that supports Gzip compression and a cache plugin. WP Rocket is a plugin that can help you speed up your website by cleaning your database, compressing your pages, and caching them.

Step 7: Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources (JS and CSS)

You should avoid loading unnecessary resources, such as JS (Javascript) and CSS (Cascading Style sheets) , at the top of your site’s code to reduce render-blocking.

The best way to improve your website’s loading time is to deliver critical JS and CSS inline and defer all non-critical JS and styles. This will give the browser a chance to load the most important files first, and then load the rest of the files later. WP Rocket can help you to load JS deferred and remove unused CSS, which will save you even more time.

You can also delay JS execution, which is often one of the main culprits for a slow mobile site:

If you don’t want to use a WordPress plugin, you can put the defer and async attributes on your tags yourself.

Step 8: Reduce page weight

A page with fewer videos, images, scripts, styles, and fonts will load more quickly on mobile. To reduce page weight and make pages load more quickly, optimize images, use text compression (GZIP), and combine/minify code.

WP Rocket is an effective way to GZIP, minify CSS, and JS files with just a few clicks.

Step 9: Get rid of whatever might challenge mobiles (When Possible)

If you want to avoid increasing your page size, load time, and the number of HTTP requests, then you should avoid using sliders, animation, preloaders, or pop-ups for your mobile visitors. You can keep things simple by opting for static images instead and trying to cache data locally.

Even Google’s Page Experience metric, which grades a site on factors like visual stability, mobile friendliness and intrusive interstitials, relies in part on a site’s performance on mobile devices. So if you want your site to rank well, don’t use unnecessarily heavy elements like layouts, properties and JS on mobile.

Step 10: Have your full-page cache delivered through CDN

Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in addition to caching can help improve your website’s performance. CDNs store copies of your site’s content across a network of servers around the world, so visitors can access your site more quickly, no matter where they are. For example, if your page takes 1 second to load in Paris, 2 seconds in New York, and 4 seconds in Sydney, using a CDN can help ensure that the page loads equally quickly no matter where the mobile user is.

Step 11: Manage and display your ads properly

In order to decrease the number of ads that are seen by users, it is recommended that companies lazy load their ads. This means that the ads will be loaded only when they are needed instead of when the page is first loaded. Additionally, ads should be made to be responsive so that they can be easily viewed on mobile devices. Having a responsive call to action on the ad will make it more likely for users to interact with it.

Advanced Ads Pro and other plugins can help you control when and where to display your ads on mobile devices.

It’s time to apply all the techniques!

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