Two second mobile time? Google says it’s vital to success

When it comes to browsing on the Internet, the greater population has the patience of a reasonably sized gnat. While extended loading times on the desktop have gone the way of the dial tone and stay reasonably speedy (at least for us) in the U.S., mobile is a different story.

According to research by Google, the average mobile browser page takes a whopping 7 seconds to load. In comparison, Google finds that anything lasting over a second is jarring enough to break a user’s flow. With unstable and unreliable mobile internet across the country, Google says that there’s only one thing to do: cut your website’s load time to below two seconds, or face the consequences.

The issue, of course, lies in the fact that much of that load time is taken up by “overhead”. As a result, developers need to make the most of the limited time they can control to make a pleasurable page experience.

MobileTimelineGoogle

For the most part, Google’s call for optimization hits on some pretty practical points: developers should minimize loading times by focusing on trimming “above the fold” content — i.e. allowing for the first section of the web page to load smoothly while the rest of the page continues to load over time. In addition to optimizing the load of both JavaScript and CSS that appears in that crucial area, Google recommends the basics — avoid excessive redirects and bloated data that requires multiple roundtrips to render a page.

Developers can test their pages by utilizing Google’s updated PageSpeed Insights tool. It can accurately time the load speed of websites across a number of platforms, show how it all appears on mobile and give optimization suggestions. That way, you can rest assured that your website’s slow speeds aren’t causing a frustrated user to chuck their phone at a wall in impatience-filled anxiety.

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