Visitors leave slow sites.
THE REALITY
On a mobile connection, a page taking several seconds loses a substantial proportion of visitors before it appears.
They do not report it. They simply do not arrive.
WHAT MAKES SITES SLOW
Large unoptimised images, by far the most common cause No caching Too many plugins
Third-party scripts: chat widgets, trackers, embedded video
A heavy theme Too many fonts
THE ORDER TO FIX
- Compress and resize images
- Enable caching
- Remove plugins you do not use
- Update PHP
- Remove unnecessary third-party scripts
- Reduce fonts
MEASURING
Test with a performance tool, on mobile, from a location near your audience.
Look at the waterfall to see what is actually taking the time.
WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE
A page that appears within a couple of seconds on a mobile connection.
THE COMMERCIAL POINT
Speed affects conversions more than most design decisions. A fast plain site outperforms a slow beautiful one.
