Should You Go For Lazy Loading In WordPress?
While many people are already reaping the benefits of lazy loading concepts, few of them still wonder about lazy loading. If you too have less idea about lazy loading and what it could do, this article is for you. We have covered all you need to know about lazy loading. So, read the article and get started!
Before i actually start with the benefits of lazy loading, here at Templatetoaster WordPress website builder, let us know what lazy loading is and how it works.
What is lazy loading?
Lazy loading is a mechanism wherein we can delay the loading of a particular object, may it be a video or just an image until a certain point where we might need it. In simpler terms, lazy loading means on demand loading of objects rather than unnecessary default loading of objects. So the annoying problem of automatic loading is stopped. This boosts up the site’s speed, thus making objects load faster.
Impact of lazy loading on SEO
Not displayed on Google’s cache
Google search engine cannot view the objects that are lazy loaded. Not convinced? Here’s an instance. If you have any part of your site featuring product at the bottom of your homepage and you have activated lazy loading that particular section does not load until you scroll to that section. This, therefore, leads to non-display of the source code of your page. Thus, it would not be displayed on Google’s cache.
Lazy loaded objects would be traded off
The lazy loaded contents will not be indexed by the search engines. As these contents are not indexed that would obviously lead to a lower ranking of these objects. So, SEO process would not count these lazy loaded contents to show search results.
Does the site lose optimization because of lazy loading?
That is a myth! The site optimization has little to do with lazy loading. The Ajax script will still get executed. The only difference is that it will get executed in the background. The site will get loaded faster! No doubts on that! But the site optimization is not affected.
How does lazy loading help?
Lazy loading prevents you from that annoying feel of “waiting”
Lazy loading is a mechanism that can lead you to something that everyone craves for – a lightning speed website. Let us admit: all of us grow impatient while waiting for the contents to load. After a point, delay by even a few seconds will cause us quit the web page. With lazy loading, we don’t have to wait for loading of contents.
The web page loads much faster.
As you load fewer resources that you require, there is no room for unnecessary loading of all and sundry contents on the web page. This makes your page load much faster.
[call_to_action color=”gray” button_icon=”download” button_icon_position=”left” button_text=”Download Now” button_url=”https://templatetoaster.com/download” button_color=”violet”]
Design stunning WordPress themes in minutes using TemplateToaster website builder
[/call_to_action]
How can you make use of lazy loading in WordPress?
By lazy loading of contents, you can avoid separate HTTP request for each image
If you are on a page that features 5 Free and Fresh Full-screen themes of WordPress, only the initial few images in the WordPress post will load and rest will load only if you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Thus, you can prevent the site from sending an HTTP request for each single image. Preventing from a considerable number of HTTP requests means saving a lot of time on WordPress.
Faster access to contents on WordPress
By lazy loading on WordPress, you can also have a faster access to all the contents. The site optimization although remains the same, the speed of loading of contents is increased.
Watch only content that concerns you
Unnecessary loading of content is avoided and a lot of your data too can be saved. The contents which you are concerned can be watched by scrolling to the end of the page.
Now that you are convinced of the various advantages that Lazy Loading has got and are deciding to implement that on your website, here are a few plugins that would help you in serving the purpose.
The best plugins for lazy loading
1. Image-lazy-load
This lazy load plugin is a light weighted version of the traditional Lazy Load. This has a special support system that serves high-resolution images with appropriate retina displays. Image-lazy-load also includes options for loading images on smartphones by compressing the number of pixels that reach you before you can actually view the images.
2. BJ Lazy Load
This lazy load plugin allows users to lazy load selected post images and thumbnails, iframes and Gravatar and replaces the content with a placeholder. By choosing a particular placeholder you can skip images with different classes. BJ lazy load also caters to various size optimized images and automatically serves hiDPI images for different hiDPI screens like that of an Apple’s retina display.
3. Jquery image lazy load
Jquery image lazy load adds jquery lazy loading to various images. The best part about this lazy load plugin is that it is very easy to use. All you need to do is just install it and activate it. The images on the sites you visit will automatically load as you scroll down to the bottom of the page. You don’t have to wait for the images to get loaded for a long time. As and when you open the webpage and scroll to the end of the page, the images are already loaded!
4. Rocket lazy load
This is a plugin that is easy to install and requires only 2kb for installation. This is a tiny script that helps in displaying the images in a widget, avatars, thumbnails and emotions as and when you scroll down the web page. There are no fancy settings to this plugin and it is often referred to as a “dirty and quick” WordPress plugin.
So, that is pretty much you need to know about lazy loading. The plugins that we have shortlisted will certainly outdo your expectations. All of them come with specific features for different requirements of users. Choosing one out of the lot is subjective! Time to install some lazy load plugins now!
[call_to_action color=”gray” button_icon=”download” button_icon_position=”left” button_text=”Download Now” button_url=”https://templatetoaster.com/download” button_color=”violet”]
Best drag and drop interface to design stunning WordPress themes
[/call_to_action]
Build a Stunning Website in Minutes with TemplateToaster Website Builder
Create Your Own Website Now
So basically it sounds like you lose a lot of SEO benefits by not indexing the images in your posts..
Thanks for the guide, just to add a bit, Google is working to support Lazy Loading in images, and the search engine Giant, Google Chrome also experimenting to provide Lazy Load by default.