SEO TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TO OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE

Here is the next adventures of the SEO tips and new techniques to optimize the SEO of your sites.

HOW TO IMPROVE AND TRACK YOUR LOADING TIMES FOR MOBILE FIRST?

In the US, we experienced the “Mobile Moment” in August 2017. This is the moment when more than 50% of searches were done on a mobile at the expense of the desktop. And this trend is only getting worse. See these numbers instead:

THE USA AND THE MOBILE

Among the 65% of Internet users who have access to the mobile web:

• 64% do it for navigation
• 60% for mails
• 55% for applications

Mobile users spend an average of 1h42 on the phone per day. That’s 23 connections a day. The mobile is deeply anchored in our habits. Moreover, for 20% of US people, this is the first thing they do when they wake up!

84% of mobile users are multitasking, for example, they listen to music on their smartphone while tweeting. 49% of US people use their smartphone on public transport.

Inside our mobiles, how is it? Chrome accounts for 51% of market share, followed by Safari.
A last figure on the business side: e-merchants without a mobile offering lose around 24 billion euros in Europe!

THE MOST COMMON KPIS FOR A MOBILE SITE

As you will have understood, to develop your business, it is imperative to include mobile in your digital strategy. At present, Internet users are mainly on their smartphone. It is not by chance, if Google promotes this habit of consumption with the Index Mobile First.

On the internet, between videos, images, and coding elements, the pages are up to 30 times heavier, which is why the concept of loading times has become increasingly important for mobile SEO.

To allow you to follow the performance of your site on mobile, here are some KPIs to watch:

• Time To First Byte (TTFB):
• Start render: it’s the time for the first element of a page to display
• Speed index: an index to evaluate how much time all elements above the waterline can display
• Time to interact: The time before a user can interact on the page
• First contentful paint: loading time of the 1st interesting content

SOME TIPS TO REDUCE LOADING TIME

Ideally, on a mobile page, an image must be less than 60KB, a page less than 1MB.

We saw it in the previous KPIs, the display of certain elements is determining for your SEO.

Here are some tips to make loading easier:

• Use the preload: define the files to load in priority
• Use prefetch: load back an early page
• Use DNS prefetch: clear network latencies, an effective method for regularly used elements on the browser

If they reduce the loading time of a page, some of these elements may have disadvantages in terms of logs, browser, phone battery, resources…
Also consider opting for an above-the-fold strategy, loading content above the waterline first.

It is also important to manage the cache and determine:

• The refresh rate
• Items to cache
• When to create the cache

In short, for mobile navigation, the ideal is to have a lean mobile site, which is closer to the AMP rendering.

“Mobile Sites” certifications exist and include the following topics:

• AMP
• UX
• performances

They will allow you to quickly evaluate if you are on the right track!

THE PROGRESSIVE WEB APP (PWA): A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE THE USER EXPERIENCE

A Progressive Web App, what is it? It is a technique halfway between the mobile site and an application. It combines the advantages of both solutions by allowing you to use less data than an application.

A PWA is set up without the user having to go through the store (Play Store for example for Android). It reduces the risk of losing users in the course since there are fewer steps!

Concretely, here are the advantages of a PWA. It is:

• Fast. When we know that 53% of users leave if the site takes more than 3 seconds to load, any acceleration of loading time is good to take!
• Integrated as native applications
• Reliable even offline or in Lie-Fi
• Engaging because it allows to receive push notifications

So necessarily, if the user experience and the loading time are reduced, this is a solution that pleases Google. This is a solution that the search engine regularly puts forward as in the Google Showcase where the Twitter PWA was applauded. This solution allowed the social network to boost its activity with:

• + 65% of pageviews/session
• + 75% tweets

It’s much lighter than a native application. Technically, it requires imperatively HTTPS to consider a PWA.
Google puts it forward to the point that on Androïd, the site proposes to add the icon of the site on the desktop (as an application).

Finally, the ultimate advantage of PWA, it is possible to track it on Google Analytics and track the behavior of users to improve it. Convinced that the loading time is essential to boost your visibility?

So contact RichestSoft, we have expert that will allow you to self-evaluate and identify areas for improvement to make your site a real lever for your strategy.