In today's digital age, the speed of web page loading is a critical factor in ensuring a good user experience and achieving a higher ranking in search engines. One technique that can significantly contribute to faster page loading is the implementation of lazy loading for images. This article will guide you on how to implement lazy loading on your website.
What is lazy loading?
Lazy loading is an optimization technique where content on a website is loaded only when it is necessary. For images, this means they are loaded and displayed only when they enter the viewport of the user. This approach can speed up the initial loading of the page because it doesn't require all images to be loaded at once.
Why use lazy loading?
- Performance improvement: Loading only the images that are visible reduces the number of server requests and the amount of data transferred, leading to faster page loading.
- Data saving: For users with limited data plans, lazy loading can significantly reduce data usage.
- Better search engine rankings: Page loading speed is one of the factors search engines use to determine search rankings.
How to implement lazy loading?
- Using native lazy loading in HTML
The simplest way to implement lazy loading is by using the loading attribute with the value lazy in the <img> tag. This is a native browser support that doesn't require any JavaScript.
<img src="/example.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Image description">
- JavaScript solution
For browsers that do not support native lazy loading or for more advanced scenarios, you can use JavaScript libraries such as lozad.js, lazysizes, or vanilla-lazyload.
<script src="/lazysizes.min.js" async></script>
For images, you simply add the lazyload class and use data-src instead of the src attribute:
<img data-src="example.jpg" class="lazyload" alt="Image description">
The library will take care of the rest, including checking when to load the image.
Implementing lazy loading for images on your website can significantly contribute to improving user experience and website performance. Whether you opt for native support in HTML or use a JavaScript library, it's a relatively simple step that can have a big impact on the overall speed and efficiency of your site.
