Facebook News Feed to prioritise stories and web pages which load quicker on mobile devices

**Facebook** today announced that News Feed will receive updates in coming months to show people stories and web pages which load faster on mobile devices. The move, aimed at improving the app’s News Feed experience, was made after Facebook found that as many as 40 percent of website visitors abandon a site after three seconds of delay. [caption id=“attachment_3887701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image: Reuters[/caption] “We’ll soon take into account the estimated load time of a webpage that someone clicks to from any link in News Feed on the mobile app. Factors such as the person’s current network connection and the general speed of the corresponding web page will be considered,” said Facebook in its news release. This means that if Facebook’s signals indicate that a web page will load quickly, the link to that particular web page might appear higher in the News Feed than one which takes longer to load. Facebook has said that the update will roll out ‘gradually’ over the coming months and that most pages may not see a significant change in their distribution in News Feed. The company has warned that web pages that load slower could see a decrease in referral traffic following the update. Site owners have also been given  key tips by Facebook to avoid the fall in traffic and optimise their web page to load faster on mobile devices. This is in addition to the basic guideposts publishers require to keep in mind to reach their audience on Facebook.