Thinking about going responsive? 3 tips to optimize your website for improved performance
Rajdeep Singh
I am associated with CYBERMOUNT Solutions as the Managing Director of the company. My role includes checking the current levels of demand and supply in the online market with respect to web design and development services. I have been working as an entrepreneur in the fields of manufacturing and IT for past 12 years. My current objective is to set the CYBERMOUNT brand on global platform. Besides this, I am also working as an independent author/writer in the context of current online services available in the market.
Responsive, responsive design, responsive web design…don’t these words reach your ears quite frequently these days? Well, these words have surely grappled the web world for good. This technology is just perfect for current times that witness people living in a world obsessed with multi-screen devices.
There are various theories put forward by experts with regards to responsive design. Some opine that a distinct mobile site is needed while some other feel that a responsive site is the need. However, irrespective of what chatter the web world witnesses, the final authority, ie Google has made its stance quite clear in this regards. Google has given preference to responsive sites over the mobile ones.
Responsive design – The darling
As mentioned earlier, responsive design is the way ahead and is set to remain the darling of the web world for years to come. A website that can easily adapt to every device is just perfect for everyone, isn’t it? However, there is one black area where even a responsive design can fail – SPEED.
If a responsive site is not optimized, the HTTP requests will be delivered even if they are out of sight for the desktop version. This will however, slow the tablet or mobile sites significantly. This brings us to the important question about finding a solution for this. So now let us look at the options in hand and unfold the responsive site quickly.
1. Optimizing images for quick loading
Almost everyone might be aware now that images are the primary culprits for slowing down any website. This fact is also true for responsive websites. One of the way you can follow is to utilize PHP scripts such as Adaptive Images. These aid in detecting the screen size while automatically creating and delivering scaled down image versions without the need of altering markups.
If you use the script mentioned above along with techniques of Fluid image, this can drastically reduce the time consumed to load images on your site. The script utilizes the htaccess file, one Javascript line and a single PHP file for determining the screen size used by visitors. Further, the software is customizable for setting the image quality.
2. Avoid unnecessary elements on your web page
Understanding user behavior is the key. Different users respond differently to various page elements on your website. Analysis will help you in determining the elements that can be excluded for improving the performance of your website. For explaining with an example, you may intend to add a testimonial widget on the site; however, this may hike the performance and also the budget. Further, you may want to have more than one form at varied locations on the website; however, analysis will explain you which is the lowest performing form and then you can remove it for good and include the testimonial widget instead of it.
3. Testing and more testing
Whatever is your method to optimize a responsive website, one aspect that you can never afford to ignore is testing. It is extremely necessary to test the site on different devices. You can ask your workmates, family members or friends to check the site on different devices they use.
Usability determines the success of your website. This makes it imperative that along with making the website attractive, you need to keep in mind that it needs to pass thumb tests, it’s navigation needs to be easy and most importantly; it loads quickly. You need to check whether the text does not look squashed as this will push the other content of the page to strange locations. All this testing will ensure that your site is optimized correctly and is ready to be launched.
Some closing words
An optimized responsive website is the recommended approach for website development in this digital age that is witnessing multi-screen devices. Though some call this technology as modern day Flash, it has become a necessary aspect without which survival is not possible in the web world. Everything boils down to how the various devices respond to your responsive website. Usability is the key and your approach needs to rest on this very aspect without fail. As minimalist design finds liking, it would be good to try a combination of responsive and minimalist design for ensuring that your site is aesthetically built along with being speedy to load.
So don’t think anymore and get in touch with us here to get a free audit report for your existing website and allow us the privilege to render you an optimized responsive website based on it.