In the world of SEO, the only that’s constant is change. Case in point: Google’s latest algorithm update. This update further proves that mobile dominance is already here. Basically, the newly rolled out update highlights the importance of mobile sites’ speed.
With the latest update launched, do you have to make major changes on your backend to be on the top position of the rankings? Let’s analyze.
How the Google Speed Update Can Affect Your Business
When the latest Google’s SEO ranking algorithm was rolled out, it was revealed that mobile websites with faster load times will be given an edge over their slower counterparts. Mobile sites with slower load times are not penalised though, but Google ranks faster sites marginally higher. Furthermore, mobile sites that are more significant to the users’ search query will still rank higher than sites with faster load times.
When in Doubt, Test Your Mobile Website’s Speed
Now is the best time to know if your mobile site’s load speed is fast enough. How? There are various online tools you can use to do this.
Google suggests its PageSpeed Insights, a tool that’s relatively easy to use. Simply put your site’s URL and it will provide you with your site’s speed information. You can also know how your site’s ranking based on speed by accessing the PageSpeed section.
If the speed analysis says that your site is fast enough (green), then you’re on the right track. But if it’s “medium” (orange) or “low” (red), then you would want to take immediate actions to make your site faster.
Easiest Ways to Make Your Mobile Site Faster
Reduce HTTP requests
When you visit a website your device requests for the files of that site so your browser can access them. The request or HTTP request is sent one at a time. Hence, the more HTTP requests sent, the more time it will require for your website’s content to be fully accessed. Reducing the number of HTTP requests will generally result in faster load time.
Use compression tools
You can reduce the size of your site’s large files by using compression tools. One of the more popular tools is Gzip. You can add this tool to your website to scale down the size of your pages and style sheets by up to 70%. Using such a tool can make your site’s load speed faster.
Allow browsers to cache
Enabling browser caching allows your visitors to access your much faster. Basically, a cache is a transitory storage unit for website data. It works in your favour by allowing the users’ browsers to save temporary data, giving them a faster time to access the site when they revisit. The browser just pulls out saved data, which results in faster loading time.
Resize images
The larger the image sizes are, the slower your website’s load time is. Reduce the dimensions of the images on your site by using photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. If your site’s images now have dimensions of 2400 x 2400 (pixels), you can resize them to 1080 x 1080 without sacrificing the photos’ clarity and quality.
Drop unnecessary plug-ins
Review the plug-ins in your website. Do they all serve a purpose? If not, it’s time to uninstall the ones that you can go without; get rid of redundant plug-ins. The number of your site’s plug-ins affects your site’s load speed.
Follow these tips and your mobile site will have a faster loading time and better chances of improving its ranking on search queries.
Did you learn a lot?
There’s more where that came from!
Search Insights is Australia’s leading e-commerce digital marketing agency. The insights we provided on the latest Google Speed Update right now is just the tip of the iceberg. We can help you consistently make sales every single month and grow your brand for expansion into overseas markets.
We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. The only question is, will your brand be our next success story? Discover the answer right away: Contact us today!
