9 Ways to Optimize Page Speed for Better SEO On Mobile Shopping Sites

In the fast-paced world of mobile e-commerce, page speed is a critical factor for SEO success. We’ve gathered nine expert tips from CTOs, CEOs, and other industry leaders to help you enhance your mobile shopping site’s performance. From specifying image sizes to utilizing page speed insights for optimization, these insights offer specific techniques to keep your mobile users engaged and improve your search rankings.

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Specify Image Sizes to Reduce Load

One of the most common things I see that affects page load speed on most sites, but commonly on e-commerce sites, is where you have an image being loaded without specific size definitions. 

This is known as a render-blocking resource, which really just means, “I can’t load the page until this has downloaded.” This can be a significant user experience (UX) issue and can turn site visitors away before they have even seen what you have to offer.

The next more generic but very common issue is unused JavaScript and CSS. It is common for desktop versions of a site to use a lot of CSS and JavaScript which aren’t necessary for mobile devices; however, they are still loaded. This can significantly increase load times. These are a bit more difficult to resolve than the image without size-specified render-blocking issues.

Trevor Stolber, Co-Founder, CTO, VibeLogic

Implement Lazy-Loading and WebP Images

One effective technique for optimizing page speed on mobile shopping sites is implementing lazy-loading for images. By loading images only when they come into the viewport, you reduce the initial load time and data consumption. This is particularly beneficial for mobile users who often have limited bandwidth. 

Start by using the “loading” attribute with the value “lazy” in your image tags, like <img src=”image.jpg” loading=”lazy”>. Additionally, consider using modern image formats like WebP, which offer superior compression rates without sacrificing quality. Combining lazy-loading with WebP images can significantly enhance your site’s performance, leading to faster load times, better user experience, and improved SEO rankings on mobile devices.

Dhari Alabdulhadi, CTO and Founder, Ubuy Netherlands

Monitor Mobile Page Speed Regularly

With mobile traffic accounting for more than 50% of total online traffic, the truth is that failing to ensure that the website loads fast enough would, in fact, be a costly mistake for mobile shopping sites.

However, in my experience as a digital marketer, one technique that has always proved effective for optimizing page speed for better SEO on mobile shopping sites is by continuously monitoring mobile page speed. The truth is, sometimes, the best way to guarantee success is by keeping regular tabs on things.

By monitoring and analyzing performance metrics like TTFB (time to first byte), FCP (first contentful paint), and TBT (total blocking time), one would be able to gain access to actionable insights that point to the exact areas where potential improvements are necessary. When it comes to ensuring better page speed on mobile shopping sites, I have learned from my experience that even when all measures have been put in place, the best way to ensure desirable results is through regular assessment; hence, the work is never actually done.

Umeadi Grace chisom, Marketing Manager, Expressdentist

Compress Images for Faster Loading

Optimizing page speed for mobile shopping sites starts with compressing images without sacrificing quality. Large image files slow down load times, so using tools to reduce their size can significantly improve speed. It’s like streamlining a storefront—keeping it visually appealing yet efficient for shoppers. Fast-loading pages not only enhance the user experience but also boost SEO rankings, ensuring customers stay and convert. This approach keeps the shopping experience seamless and satisfying.

Joe Davies, CEO, FATJOE

Reduce Server Response Time

One specific tip for optimizing page speed is to focus on reducing the server response time. This involves choosing a high-performance hosting provider and ensuring your server’s resources are optimized. For instance, with one of my B2B clients, we switched to a premium hosting service that specialized in faster server responses. This change alone cut our server response time by a considerable margin, which directly impacted our mobile site load times and improved our SEO rankings significantly.

Another critical technique is enabling GZIP compression on your server. This compresses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files before they’re sent to the browser, reducing the file sizes and speeding up load times. With a retail client, implementing GZIP compression reduced their page size significantly, which translated into a much faster load time on mobile devices. This tweak enhanced the user experience and positively influenced their SEO performance by decreasing bounce rates.

Lastly, employing a content delivery network (CDN) can be a game-changer. A CDN stores copies of your site across various data centers around the world, serving content to users from the closest server. For Cleartail Marketing, using a CDN reduced load times, greatly boosting our SEO and leading to a substantial increase in revenue for a client within 12 months. Switching to a reliable CDN can offer immediate improvements in site speed and, consequently, SEO rankings.

Magee Clegg, CEO, Cleartail Marketing

Minimize Mobile Page Redirects

My favorite technique for optimizing page speed for better SEO on mobile shopping sites is to keep mobile page redirects to a minimum, because the truth is, while redirections have their advantages and SEO benefits, when not strategically implemented, they can cause pages to lag, which negatively impacts the shopping experience of website visitors.

One truth that many fail to learn is that having too many redirections on a page will only result in a situation where website visitors have to wait longer than necessary before accessing their search results. However, this can be avoided by making sure to use redirects only when they are absolutely necessary, especially from the site’s main page. Also, I have found that it helps to keep redirects at a one-per-link maximum.

Gideon Omeruta, SEO and content lead, Findbyplate

Minify and Combine CSS/JavaScript Files

One effective technique we have implemented to optimize page speed for better SEO on our mobile shopping site is minifying and combining CSS and JavaScript files. By reducing the file size of these resources and minimizing the number of HTTP requests required to load them, we streamlined the loading process for our mobile users. 

Initially, we used a tool to analyze and compress our CSS and JavaScript files, removing unnecessary characters, comments, and white spaces. Next, we combined multiple files into a single CSS file and a single JavaScript file wherever feasible. This consolidation reduced the server response time and accelerated the rendering speed of our pages on mobile devices. The successful outcome of this optimization strategy was measurable; we experienced a noticeable improvement in our mobile site’s loading speed according to Google PageSpeed Insights. 

This improvement enhanced our SEO performance by positively influencing our mobile page ranking and contributed to an increase in organic traffic from mobile search results. This approach highlights the importance of technical optimizations like file minification and consolidation in enhancing mobile site performance, improving user experience, and ultimately driving business growth through better SEO outcomes.

Swayam Doshi, Founder, Suspire

Adopt Progressive Web App Technologies

We implemented progressive web app (PWA) technologies. PWAs are web applications that blend the best of both worlds—the reach and accessibility of the mobile web with the rich, app-like experiences typically associated with native mobile apps.

It optimizes page speed and minimizes data usage, particularly for our mobile users. By utilizing service workers, a core component of PWA technology, we’re able to cache critical assets like product images, style sheets, and JavaScript files, reducing the need to reload these assets on every page visit and dramatically improving load times.

PWA architecture allows us to deliver content and functionality to our customers even when they’re offline or have a poor network connection, ensuring a consistent and reliable shopping experience regardless of the user’s device or network conditions.

But the benefits of our PWA implementation extend beyond just page speed and offline capabilities. By providing our mobile customers with an app-like experience, complete with features like push notifications, home screen integration, and seamless checkout, we’ve been able to drive higher levels of engagement, retention, and conversion.

Josh Qian, COO and Co-Founder, Best Online Cabinets

Use Page Speed Insights for Optimization

See where your site currently stands by using this tool: https://pagespeed.web.dev/. This tool is useful because you can identify the overall performance of your site on both desktop and mobile, and it recommends areas for improvement. One of the recommendations we noticed from this tool is to minimize the file sizes of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files. 

Another piece of advice we know is to leverage the power of browser caching. Browser caching is used to improve load times because it allows static resources like CSS, JavaScript, and images to be stored locally on a visitor’s device. This reduces the need to download them repeatedly on subsequent page visits.

Ashlee Dickson, Sales And Marketing Associate, Console Vault

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