Being Mobile Isn't Enough

By Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyNew research by Google has found that 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a webpage doesn’t load within three seconds. As a point of reference, the average load time for sites is 19 seconds on a 3G connection and 14 seconds on a 4G connection. Houston, we seem to have a problem!First, You Need to be MobileBefore you can even start to stress about the implications of all this, you need to make sure you have a mobile-friendly website. Go ahead, use the browser on your phone and go to the site. (If you have an app, I am not talking about that; I am talking about your website.)What do you see? Is everything on the screen or do you have to scroll left and right? Are elements overlapping one another? Can you read the type? Assess your grade on being mobile-friendly.Next, OptimizeHow long does your mobile-friendly site take to load a page? If your site is mobile friendly, but slow, you need to look at optimizing.Look at the elements of the page. Are they all necessary or can you reduce complexity (and therefore load time)?On the back-end of your site, are you uploading huge images and sizing them down to small views? The browser is loading the full image file no matter the display size.Look at your ads. Mobile ads take an average of five seconds to load. Consider how critical ads are on your mobile site and work with your ad partner to streamline if you want to keep them. [author]About the Author: Jill Kurtz founded Kurtz Digital Strategy to help clients see the communication potential of the newest trends and technologies. She is an expert at website strategy and redesign, social media planning, and developing exceptional content.[/author]