Creating Lightning-Fast Websites
September 2, 2016
Ensuring that your website loads almost instantly these days is extremely important as visitors expect a simple, quick and intuitive user experience. When a site takes too long to load, chances are high that your viewer will abandon your site and find something better and faster.
There have been several independent studies with interesting results:
With increasing demand, almost 50% of internet users want websites to load in two seconds or less.
One study revealed that E-commerce shoppers want website load speeds of two seconds. Google is aiming to better this with load speeds of less than half a second. Watch the Google Webmasters video for more.
60% of mobile users will abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load.
The results prove that if your site is speedy it greatly improves the overall user experience.
Less is More
The less items your website has to load the faster it will run.
Designers should always stick to the true principle of minimalism to create a website which doesn’t take forever to load each page.
- Use one font family (Avoid using a variety of fonts and styles).
- More white space (Images take time to load).
- Shorter customised contact forms.
- Smaller images (load faster).
- Hamburger menu instead of a standard menu.
Free Google Resources
One of your most powerful tools is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. This provides you with detailed reports and recommendations for both mobile and desktop versions of your site.
Try Use Lazy Loading
Lazy Loading causes elements to load and initialise when users are actually scrolling down the page. Your site therefore needs to rely on fewer resources, which makes it perform faster.
Lazy loading is highly effective when your page has a lot of content. Long single-scrolling pages will improve the user experience and speed of the website!
Designing with load speeds in mind is crucial! The modern browser user experience is essential for all types of visitors. It’s simple: Fast User Experience = happy user! Optimise your website development project and beat your competitors to potential new clients.
It’s a win/win all round for your business and for your clients.