Do your law blogs satisfy the need for speed on mobile?

Publishers and the news media are having a tough time keeping up with the speed mobile requires. This per a story from eMarketer, an independent market research company that provides insights and trends related to digital marketing, media and commerce.

Though the vast majority of print and media sites in a November study were mobile optimized, none were able to meet Google’s recommendation for a 5-second load time.

The times were dramatically slower, the average being over a minute. The reason being that though the text may load and be seen, the publishers’ sites included advertising, graphics, and features not necessarily required for the consumption of content.

The result is a “heavy site” blowing Google’s recommended threshold, providing a poor user experience and making it difficult to read on browsers used by Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

What’s this all mean for you as a law firm who, via your blogs, are in the digital media and publishing business?

• Get your blogs on responsive design, the mobile format being pushed by Google.
• Do not “feature up” your blog. Limit your design and development to include only those features needed for the consumption of content and the navigation of a blog.
• Be judicious in your use of plug-ins. Whose are they? Will the be kept up to date? Could they slow performance? Could they limit future platform changes and upgrades which would improve speed?
• Get your blog outside your website so it sits as an independent site. It’s the right thing to do for reputation and relationships already. You also do not want to drag the elements and features that are likely to come from a website into your mobile blog environment. Your website may also not be WordPress based, software whose constant iterations will improve speed.
• Design for mobile first, desktop second. Forget how your blog looks on a desktop. Design for an iPhone. Done right, your blog will look great on desktop. Otherwise you’ll invariably end up with more features than needed.
• Look for designers, developers, and hosts who specialize in digital publishing and blogs. They’ll be more likely to be making iterative changes and upgrades to your blog publishing platform that’ll improve speed and focus on optimum performance.

A study from the American Press Institute found that 56 percent of Americans use a smartphone and 29 percent a tablet to access news each week.

Don’t be fooled by relying on your blog’s analytics which may show the percentage of your visitors coming from mobile to be much lower. The influencers which are moving content on social media are on mobile. You need them.

Law blogs are not email newsletters, alerts, or websites. Blogs are part of the media and publishing world.

Your blogs need to satisfy the need for speed on mobile. If they don’t you’ll lose readers and suffer search consequences.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Marshall