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Data shows that over half of all web traffic is from mobile devices (excluding tablets). Site owners that do not optimize their websites for mobile risk losing traffic due to poor experiences. This guide provides steps to optimize a website for mobile and improve the mobile user experience. The efforts invested in improved user experience also improve search engine rankings and increase website traffic.
What is Different About a Mobile-Friendly Website?
Reading from a mobile device is very different from a desktop. Mobile devices have smaller screens, which make it hard to see fine detail. That is why a mobile version of a website can’t merely be the smaller version of the desktop site.
Moreover, optimizing mobile access based on paradigms such as the golden triangle and F-shaped pattern. The better approach is to learn how to optimize your website for mobile by simplifying designs to make everything easy to see and clear of visual clutter.
How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile
Mobile-friendly design means website content – texts, images, videos, links – is easily and readily accessible. The following are tips on how to optimize for mobile:
Create content specifically for the mobile reader
Although desktop content can work on mobile devices well, some aspects of desktop content limit its performance on mobile devices. For the best results, content targeted to mobile readers should specifically suit them.
Some of the things you can do to guarantee this include:
- Keep the titles short and sweet.
- Add relevant subheadings.
- Start content with a few short, attention-grabbing sentences/paragraphs.
- Get rid of unnecessary sentences, points, phrases, and words.
- Use images sparingly.
Whether creating mobile-friendly content for your website from scratch or revamping existing content, ensure that to prioritize quality over quantity. High-quality content can enable a site owner to communicate their message effectively, educate their target audience, and persuade them to purchase their products or services.
Improve loading time
Mobile website loading time is critical because, more often than not, mobile traffic is on the go. Readers expect pages to load fast. If they don’t, visitors bounce and look for the information elsewhere. Even if they wait, the experience will be perceived as less than optimal, creating a negative impression.
Here are some of the methods to improve website loading speed:
- Implement caching.
- Use a Content Delivery Network.
- Reduce and compress images.
- Minify code.
- Optimize plugins and themes.
- Host with a provider that knows the significance of optimizing for mobile.
Not only does the speed of a website impact the bounce rate, but it also impacts Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines prioritize speed when it comes to search results, giving fast-loading websites an advantage over slow-loading ones.
Use a responsive design
Without a responsive design, the content will appear haphazardly on different devices due to different screen types, sizes, and shapes. A responsive design allows the page content to adapt to the size and organization of the device the user is using.
A responsive design also ensures a website changes with changes in device settings. For example, if users switch screen orientation or change system settings to larger or smaller text sizes.
Focus on mobile user experience
How users feel about a website when browsing determines whether they will come back or not. Some of the things you can do to improve the user experience for the mobile user include:
- Using a thumb-friendly design.
- Creating easy-to-find CTAs.
- Ensuring font is legible on smaller devices.
- Ensuring your website is easy to navigate.
- Use white space.
Websites that abide by the relevant web design best practices and standards are often more robust and reliable. The more user-friendly a site is, the more credibility it adds to a brand and the more confidence it inspires in a target audience.
Redesign or ditch pop-ups
Pop-ups, though quite effective, can be more obstructive on mobile than on desktop devices. If site owners must use pop-ups, they should optimize them. Some things they can do to optimize pop-ups for mobile include:
- Only use pop-ups when necessary and to convey essential information.
- Ensure they cover only a tiny fraction of the screen.
- Make them easy to close.
Even small or medium-sized pop-ups on desktops can cover the whole mobile screen, negatively impacting the user experience. That is why it is worth the effort to redesign or stop using them altogether.
How Can You Tell Whether Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly?
Google has a handy mobile-friendly test tool to check how well a website is optimized for mobile. Simply paste the URL and wait a few minutes for the test results. If a website is not mobile-friendly, Google will suggest how to optimize it for mobile to improve user experience.
Conclusion
If the current trend is anything to go by, mobile is the future of online search. This is especially true for sites accessed internationally, where most users use mobile phones instead of computers. If a site owner doesn’t know how to optimize their website for mobile, they will find it hard to grow traffic and achieve their content objectives.
Visit the NameSilo blog for more valuable tips on business growth and user experience.