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Enhance images by optimizing your mobile website

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Mobile browsing might look the same as web browsing but on a smaller screen, but people behave differently depending on which device they’re using. If you thought that internet surfers’ attention span was low already, you should see the mobile users — knowing how to speed up your mobile website and enhance your images is essential.

What does this mean for you and your business? Let’s examine why fast loading times are essential and what you can do to increase yours. We hope you’ve got your learning cap on!

The growing importance of mobile web

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the use of the mobile web is growing fast. After all, whenever we go anywhere or do anything that involves people, we’re bound to see a good proportion of those people using their phones to surf the web.

So why are so many businesses neglecting it?

We’re advising companies on their digital strategies all the time, and one of the most common problems we notice is that mobile websites just aren’t fast and user-friendly enough. Maybe they’re too image-heavy or not made to be responsive or they haven't the correct image format.

You’d think eCommerce stores would make a special effort to optimize their websites for mobiles, but this doesn’t appear to be the case.

This is terrible news for all the companies that have failed to recognize the importance of the mobile web — but it could be fantastic news for you if you’re ready to step up to the challenge. It’s time to find out why.

How mobile speed affects your bottom line

It might seem like a stretch to say that the speed of your mobile website directly affects the revenue of your business, but the evidence suggests that this relationship does indeed exist.

eCommerce websites are affected particularly hard.  Retailers often like to include lots of high-quality images to increase their brand appeal, but this can make the product pages and category pages so cumbersome to load that potential customers run a mile. (You can still have high-quality images without compromising the page load time)

Simple techniques like optimizing images, browser caching, and reordering content for mobile viewing can have a huge impact. Companies as diverse as Dakine (an outdoor clothing retailer) and Telefónica (a telecom provider), improving mobile website speed has significantly improved sales.

Companies that aren’t in the eCommerce sector can also benefit. Even if you don’t want to sell a product or service on your website directly, everyone wants to direct leads further down the marketing funnel — whether to a subscriber list, social media link, or something else.

More people get to the checkout on faster websites

When it comes to the importance of website loading times, most people focus on losing visitors who are waiting for the homepage to load. But you can lose visitors at any point along their journey on your website.

Undoubtedly the most painful is a customer leaving just before they reach the checkout.

Studies show that making a site faster improves customers’ chance of making a purchase once they’ve added an item to their basket, so this is something you can’t afford to neglect. Check the Case Study from Home Hardware who has improved their eCommerce and make it faster for their clients.

People spend longer on faster websites

Have you ever wanted to buy something on a website but found the user experience so awful that you couldn’t wait to make your purchase as quickly as possible and never return? It turns out that this is a common pattern.

The faster a website loads and the more pleasant it is to use in general. And do you know what that means? People browse for longer and are more likely to make additional purchases. Bingo!

Here is an extra tip about First contentful paint (FCP) and help to show and maintain your users longer into your website

Decrease your bounce rate

You need to pay attention to many marketing metrics — clickthrough rates and conversion rates are two of the most important. Another is the bounce rate: the percentage of people who leave a page.

And, yes, you guessed it — a faster loading time helps to decrease the bounce rate.

How to increase up the loading time of your mobile website

At this point, you should appreciate the importance of a mobile website that loads quickly. But now it’s time to answer the million-dollar question: how can you make your website load faster?

There are various strategies that you can adopt, but here are a few of our favorites:

  1. Find out what your mobile speed is by running an Image Speed Test.
  2. The Image Speed Test will also give you some suggestions for improving your website’s speed. Implement these recommendations.
  3. If you don’t have the budget or software to carry out all the necessary steps, take your ideas to senior leadership and explain why your mobile website’s speed is so important.
  4. Use important KPIs (like the bounce rate) to measure the impact that various  measures have, and use the results to formulate a strategy.
  5. Continue to track your speed over time and link it to your analytics page.
  6. Don’t forget to pay attention to user experience and design, too — a web designer can help.

Checking your mobile website speed

For some people, website speed is an afterthought. At Piio, it’s our central focus — our mission is to help companies realize the importance of their web presence and their customers’ digital experience. That’s why we’ve created various free tools to help them do exactly that.

When you use our Image Speed Test, you won’t just get a number that tells you how quickly your website loads. You’ll also gain a better understanding of how to meet the needs, demands, and expectations of your customers.

Bottom line

When tinkering with your mobile website speed, it’s important to remember that this is an ongoing process and not a one-time job. Even if your website loads immediately now, that doesn’t guarantee that it will still perform well a few years down the line — or even within a few months.

Commit to embracing the challenge.

If the process of improving your page speed score seems too overwhelming to you, we can guide you through the process to make it as pain-free as possible. Sound good? Schedule your demo.