Really nobody likes slow websites
Do you know that? You want to open a website on your smartphone, and after what feels like minutes, something finally happens on your screen, it is also one of the countless pages that look the same on the PC as on the smartphone. How are you supposed to use this? How am I supposed to find the info if I have to keep zooming in and out?! I don't know about you, but I'll be back on Google very quickly and take the next result.
More than 50% of websites are already viewed on mobile devices. Google knows that too (I know it from Google too ;-)), and that's why the people of California decided to prioritize websites that are optimized for smartphones.
Since Google is a commercial enterprise and certainly has competition (Bing is preset on many devices, and of course Facebook is a serious competitor), Google is very interested in having as many optimized websites as possible in its index. If people find more and more pages on Google that you can only use with difficulty on your smartphone, then the search engine quickly changed. That's why Google has made a very powerful tool available to all website operators free of charge: PageSpeed Insights
You just enter your domain in the field provided and you get a very easy-to-read result as to whether your own homepage is fast enough for the digital future. The result is divided into mobile and desktop, and 100 points can be achieved in each case. If the display is green, then your web designer has done everything right and you are on the safe side. If the result is orange, the user experience is limited. The page takes too long to load, images are not optimized for smartphones and your website uses outdated technology. If the result is red, on the other hand, it may well be that Google will give your competition the edge and you will disappear into Nirvana.
It is also important to get as many points as possible in order to turn potential customers into regular visitors to your website. People quickly notice when visiting a website has cost them a lot of time and acknowledge this by staying away from your homepage.
But what can you do now if your result at PageSpeed Insights is not satisfactory? This is where the real power of the tool comes to the fore, as Google gives you precise instructions on what to do. In addition, Google even provides you with optimized images and optimized code, which you only have to exchange.
So that you can understand what Google wants to tell you, I have compiled a list of the possible results and tried to explain everything for a layman.
This aspect is extremely important, especially on the smartphone, but unfortunately you will not be able to do it alone. From my own experience, I have to say that far-reaching measures are necessary on the website and on the server in order to get the best possible result. That's why we always offer our customers an optimized page, and your web designer should do the same. If he can't, find a better one. It's your business and your money what you lose to bad websites.
Even worse is something like this: your example domain.de -> www.your example domain.de -> m.your example domain.de -> m.your example domain.de/startseite
Such a solution is guaranteed to be penalized by Google.
The easiest way is to use a responsive website. The same page is always called up here, so there is no forwarding. The page automatically adapts to the screen size.
In plain language: Your site is unusable for smartphones and flies out of the mobile index! Now it's time for a redesign, preferably by a professional.
Conclusion
It is quite possible that you take the optimization of your mobile website into your own hands. Check your homepage with Google's PageSpeed Insights and see how your site performs. You can carry out some measures yourself as described here, and if your web designer has done a reasonably good job, your website will be optimized for the mobile world with a few simple steps. Otherwise, you should consider what is best for your business. Spending a lot of time on your website's technology is just as detrimental to your business as an afternoon in front of the television. And a good website doesn't have to be expensive, as you can see here .
More than 50% of websites are already viewed on mobile devices. Google knows that too (I know it from Google too ;-)), and that's why the people of California decided to prioritize websites that are optimized for smartphones.
Since Google is a commercial enterprise and certainly has competition (Bing is preset on many devices, and of course Facebook is a serious competitor), Google is very interested in having as many optimized websites as possible in its index. If people find more and more pages on Google that you can only use with difficulty on your smartphone, then the search engine quickly changed. That's why Google has made a very powerful tool available to all website operators free of charge: PageSpeed Insights
You just enter your domain in the field provided and you get a very easy-to-read result as to whether your own homepage is fast enough for the digital future. The result is divided into mobile and desktop, and 100 points can be achieved in each case. If the display is green, then your web designer has done everything right and you are on the safe side. If the result is orange, the user experience is limited. The page takes too long to load, images are not optimized for smartphones and your website uses outdated technology. If the result is red, on the other hand, it may well be that Google will give your competition the edge and you will disappear into Nirvana.
It is also important to get as many points as possible in order to turn potential customers into regular visitors to your website. People quickly notice when visiting a website has cost them a lot of time and acknowledge this by staying away from your homepage.
But what can you do now if your result at PageSpeed Insights is not satisfactory? This is where the real power of the tool comes to the fore, as Google gives you precise instructions on what to do. In addition, Google even provides you with optimized images and optimized code, which you only have to exchange.
So that you can understand what Google wants to tell you, I have compiled a list of the possible results and tried to explain everything for a layman.
Optimize images
Google has nothing against images, quite the opposite. Images loosen up your website, arouse curiosity and show you from your personal side. The problem with photos is that they're usually cluttered with useless information. META data such as photographer, date, location and various keywords are not visible to the viewer in the image. This only makes images unnecessarily large, which, especially on mobile devices, simply costs your visitors time and nerves. Many images can also be better optimized for the web, which can drastically reduce the loading time. In the PageSpeed Tool, Google provides you with your images in an optimized form, so you only have to download them and replace them with your existing images. If you use Wordpress, for example, your webmaster can install various tools on your server so that your images are automatically optimized. Things don't look so good with kits, as far as I know only our own kit can do that.Content "above the fold"
It sounds complicated, but it's quite logical: Normally, a website has to be fully loaded in the browser before it can be displayed and used. This can sometimes take a long time, especially if you use a lot of pictures, graphics and fonts. Google had the idea that it shouldn't really matter how big a page is. The main thing is that the user gets the upper part of the homepage visible on their smartphone as quickly as possible. In this way, the visitor does not have to wait long for something to happen, and he can see more quickly whether the information he is looking for is on this website. In summary: The area of the homepage that is visible without scrolling should be loaded before all other things.This aspect is extremely important, especially on the smartphone, but unfortunately you will not be able to do it alone. From my own experience, I have to say that far-reaching measures are necessary on the website and on the server in order to get the best possible result. That's why we always offer our customers an optimized page, and your web designer should do the same. If he can't, find a better one. It's your business and your money what you lose to bad websites.
Use browser caching
So that your website does not have to be completely reloaded from the server every time, the browser caches frequently used data. For this to happen, the data must have an expiration date. Your server can do this for you by uploading a so-called HTACCESS file to your server. Inside this file is code that gives certain files an expiration date when they are retrieved by the browser. You can download such a file here. It belongs in your server's root directory, where your homepage is located. Your server provider will definitely help you with this. It will be worth it for you.Reduce JavaScript
JavaScript is program code that runs directly on your browser. Your online appointment calendar, for example, will work with it, but your contact form will also be checked before it is sent. This code is often made easier to read with comments and many paragraphs, but all of this costs a lot of download time. You can easily optimize your JavaScript online here and replace it with your current scripts. But make a backup copy of the old scripts first. If the new ones don't work, you can replace them that way.Avoid landing page redirects
On the smartphone, a different domain is usually opened for your homepage than on the PC. This is how your homepage recognizes which version it should deliver. It usually looks like this: your example domain. de -> m.your example domain. de/startseite. The domain is therefore forwarded, and that again costs valuable time.Even worse is something like this: your example domain.de -> www.your example domain.de -> m.your example domain.de -> m.your example domain.de/startseite
Such a solution is guaranteed to be penalized by Google.
The easiest way is to use a responsive website. The same page is always called up here, so there is no forwarding. The page automatically adapts to the screen size.
Configure viewport
Very important and if you get this error, your page will be displayed on smartphones in the same way as on a desktop PC.In plain language: Your site is unusable for smartphones and flies out of the mobile index! Now it's time for a redesign, preferably by a professional.