As more and more people around the world continue to adopt mobile devices, search engines and the internet at-large continue to adapt to changing times. The biggest websites in the world – Google and Facebook, to name two – are all now reporting that a majority of their traffic comes through mobile devices. The mobile experience via a website is different for the user than through a desktop device, and so should be the interface if brands and businesses want to retain this traffic. Mobile speed is one absolutely crucial component of the mobile experience: we’ll talk below about how you can identify potential trouble areas and how you can fix them.

Perform a Mobile Speed Check

Before you can be sure how well or poorly your site is doing with mobile devices, you first will need a baseline. There are many different utilities available on the internet that can assist users with performing mobile speed checks, such as Google Page Speed Insights and Google Mobile Friendly Test. These tools will start pinging servers on your website and render a verdict as to whether your mobile site speed is acceptable, below par or in bad shape. They will also provide a variety of recommendations as to what can be fixed to optimize overall performance, with indicators displayed that show whether minimal benefit or substantial benefit will be earned by fixing each specific issue.

Adopt Accelerated Mobile Pages

Recently, Google unveiled a new concept: accelerated mobile pages. These pages work by formatting web pages in such a way that content is served to mobile devices in record time. Webmasters will still have total control over how content appears to mobile users, but the overall design is one that allows visitors to quickly access content through less substantial connections to the web. Accelerated mobile pages can be adopted by any website through the inclusion of specific HTML code that optimizes the display for users and ensures that webmasters retain aesthetic control over how things look. This can especially be a great solution for websites with ample content or that are hosted via naturally slower services.

Adopt Responsive Design

Even if you have implemented accelerated mobile pages and performed a mobile speed check to weed out problem areas, it is absolutely crucial that your website utilizes responsive design. In short, responsive design ensures that when visitors start pinging servers on your domain, they receive a mobile-friendly version of the website in question. This further minimizes the loading of unnecessary web elements and improves overall interaction for users. Rather than having to squint, pinch the screen and scroll back and forth to find various elements, responsive design utilizes mobile technology to ensure that websites are truly functional and accessible on tablets, PCs, laptops, and mobile phones. It is also worth noting that Google now penalizes websites that do not optimize mobile experience in this regard; it is definitely worth the effort to implement this function, which will improve overall site speed for mobile users in combination with everything else.

Do you have any other ideas for optimizing mobile speed on your website? Let us know in the comments below if you have tried anything else to improve overall user experience.