Did you know only 45% of users will access your website from a desktop computer?

No matter which type of website you have, speed is the name of the game. This is doubly true for mobile users who find your site while they’re on the go.

The average person will only glance through your website for 15 seconds before deciding to stick around longer (or bounce to another site). If your site takes too long to load, you’ve already lost those potential customers.

What can you do to speed up your website? Here are 4 tips to try today.

1. Use Compression Tools

Too many large images will slow down your site, especially on a mobile device. You can manually resize them if you like, or you can use a compression tool to do it for you.

Free plugins like smush.it or EWWW Image Optimizer will reduce your .jpeg and .png files without sacrificing quality. There are also script compressors for HTML and CSS that remove unnecessary white space and code.

Users won’t be able to tell you’re using these compression tools. They’ll only see the result—a blazing fast site.

2. Choose Fluid Layouts

With over 24,000 Android devices on the market (and that’s not including Apple devices), you need a site that works well on any screen.

Your best bet is to create a fluid layout that will adapt to screens of all shapes and sizes. Fluid layouts rely on percentages rather than pixels for measurements.

This means your site will scale up or down as much as necessary to appear correctly on any screen.

3. Eliminate Unnecessary Elements

Use one of the compression tools mentioned earlier to get rid of all unnecessary characters from your site’s source code. It may be best to use a professional designer to ensure you won’t lose any functionality during the process.

You should streamline your site by reducing (or eliminating) redirects that slow it down. You may also choose to eliminate popups on your mobile version, as these can frustrate someone trying to navigate your site.

Oh, and if you’re still using Flash for any fancy features, keep in mind that Adobe will no longer support the plugin after 2020. Use Java or HTML5 for any fun effects on your site.

4. Leverage Web Caching

A final tip to speed up your website is to improve its performance with web caching. Rather than presenting a live version of your site to every new user (and pulling all that data from the server), they’ll see a cached copy.

Your host provider will automatically cache and display your site at certain intervals, but you can speed up your site by customizing those cache options. Varnish, Squid, and Memcached are a few caching solutions you might consider.

Ready to Speed up Your Website?

In today’s fast-paced world, you can’t afford to have anything less than a lightning-fast website.

Use the tips above to speed up your site and improve user experience. Compression tools and fluid layouts will ensure your images load quickly and correctly.

Streamline your site by getting rid of unnecessary code and other elements. You should also optimize your web caching options to improve site speed.

Do you need help streamlining and optimizing your site? Click here to learn more about our performance optimization services.