Your blog needs to be optimized for mobile at this point. It’s no longer a convenient feature – it’s something that Google requires.
Since more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices, this is something Google’s algorithm heavily considers when ranking sites in their search engine.
You could have the greatest blog in your niche, but people may never find it if it isn’t fully optimized for mobile viewers.
Thankfully, helping your blog load faster on mobile devices isn’t difficult.
Be Smart about Plugins
Plugins make everything so much easier, especially if you’re using a WordPress blog. The only problem with these plugins is that when people are loading your website, they’re loading your plugins, too.
If you have plugins you installed and forgot about, it’s time to get rid of them. Try to consolidate as many of your plugins as possible.
Do you need a separate one for each thing, or can you find one plugin that serves multiple purposes?
Try to keep the amount of plugins to a minimum.
Easy on the Ads
Ads are a mobile viewer’s nightmare. Ads may make it cost effective to run your blog, but they aren’t doing mobile viewers any favors.
Some of them monopolize your blog and slow things down. On a smaller screen, these ads are obtrusive. Loading them eats up a lot of time.
If you’re using AdSense, which is one of the most popular ad revenue programs, you’re going to have two format options: asynchronous, and synchronous ads.
Asynchronous ads are designed to minimize loading delay. All you have to do is switch over.
Don’t Give It All Away on the First Page
If you have 15 posts that display on your front page, it’s no wonder mobile users are running out of patience with your blog.
Instead of laying it all out for them upon entry, just make it easy for them to find what they need.
Limit the amount of posts that show on your homepage, and improve your navigation system. People will still be able to find stuff, and they won’t be bombarded when they first arrive.
Less will need to load before they can begin to browse.
Investigate Hosting Options
If your mobile viewers are experiencing slow load times, your host may be the problem.
Shared hosting is the most popular option for blogs, and when you choose shared hosting you’re sharing a server with a bunch of other websites.
If every website is experiencing traffic at the same time, the delay will affect the whole server.
Since dedicated hosting is absurdly expensive, you may be better off opting for a virtual private server.
While it’s still technically a shared server, the activity on other websites won’t affect what happens on your website.
You’re being placed in a little box that’s specifically designated for you.
Clean Everything Up
If you’ve had your blog for a while, it could be bogged down by the things you don’t use anymore that you’ve forgotten were on your server.
Old codes and backups for several years ago won’t do you any good. Get rid of everything that’s become useless over time.
If something is very important to you and you want to keep it, you can always save it to your device.
Just make sure you don’t have any garbage hanging around that could be slowing down your load times for no real reason.
Conclusion
Remember to check your site’s mobile performance as often as possible. You won’t be able to fiddle around and clean things up one time and expect those adjustments to last an eternity. Check once a month to make sure everything is working the way you want it to.
About the Author
Alyssa Magarey is a great tech enthusiast working at Web24, which offers secure and reliable web hosting. She likes to be on top of the latest technology trends and test new gadgets.
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