Slow websites are a pain to use, especially when you're in a hurry or searching for answers on your mobile. The speed of the loading of your website also makes a huge impact on how Google reviews and ranks your sites - that's goes for both the mobile version and the desktop version.
Google continues to publish stats which show we are all increasingly mobile. It was more that 2 years ago that mobile searches overtook desktop searches for the first time. So there has been much emphasis on making sure your website is mobile friendly.
But there's an even simpler important aspect that affects the experience of users on your website, whether mobile, desktop or tablet and that is speed.
We regularly run speed tests on websites to improve their performance and the experience for the visitor. A popular way to test is using Google's own PageSpeed Insights tool where Google recommends aiming for a page speed score of 85/100 or better, on both Desktop and Mobile.
What we see most regularly as a culprit for slow page speed is the need to Reduce Image File Size.
Amazingly, it is common to find even mobile friendly websites, which force the device to download an image several megabytes in size just to display the home page. This will often cause a visitor to simply press the back button after the first 7 to 10 seconds and move on. Don't let that be your website they are bouncing from.
There's a simple solution that costs you very little time as an extra step before uploading any photo or graphic image to your website and that is to reduce the file size first. My favourite tool for this is tinypng.com
PNG is a file image type that is commonly used for graphic elements such as Logos or Infographics, as it also has the capability for part of the image to be transparent, which is ideal for a logo. JPEG (developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most common format for photographic images. Fortunately, the tinypng.com website easily handles both.
Drag and drop the image you wish to publish into the tinypng website and in moments it will have worked its magic and you have a file ready for upload that is often significantly reduced in size, yet looks basically the same.
Hats off to tinypng.com for making such a useful website and providing this excellent service for free. My tip for the weekend. Enjoy :)