Why Your Website Should Be Mobile-Friendly
By Nine Hive Digital
A website is mobile-friendly when it can adapt to different screen sizes and devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
This means that the website can change its layout, design, and functionality according to the device that the user is accessing from. For example, a mobile-friendly website might have a hamburger menu, larger buttons, and fewer images on a smartphone than on a desktop computer. This way, the user can access the website’s content and features without having to zoom in, scroll horizontally, or tap on tiny links.
Good user experience
A mobile-friendly website provides a good user experience by making the content easy to read, navigate, and interact with. This means that the website’s content is clear, concise, and relevant for the user’s needs and goals. The website’s navigation is intuitive, consistent, and accessible for the user to find what they are looking for. The website’s interaction is responsive, fast, and engaging for the user to click through. A good user experience can increase the user’s satisfaction, loyalty, and conversion rate, which means better outcomes for you and your business.
Helps with SEO
A mobile-friendly website also helps with SEO, as Google prefers websites that are optimized for mobile devices. SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is the process of improving the website’s visibility and ranking on search engines like Google.
Google uses various factors to determine the quality and relevance of a website, such as its content, structure, speed, and usability. Google also considers the mobile-friendliness of a website, as it affects the user’s experience and behavior. A mobile-friendly website can improve the SEO of a website by increasing its traffic, dwell time, and click-through rate.
How to make your site mobile-friendly
There are many tricks that you can utilize to make your website mobile-friendly on smaller devices such as tablets and cell phones. Here are the main aspects you should focus on:
1. Use a Responsive Theme or Template
One of the easiest and most effective ways to make your site mobile-friendly is to use a responsive theme or template. A responsive theme or template is a design that automatically adjusts to the screen size and orientation of the device. It uses flexible layouts, media queries, and fluid grids to create a consistent and user-friendly appearance.
A responsive theme or template is one of the most popular and recommended ways to make your site mobile-friendly, as it can accommodate various devices and browsers. You don’t have to create a separate mobile version of your site, which can save you time and resources.
Most website builders and content management systems (CMS) offer responsive themes or templates that you can choose from. For example, WordPress has thousands of responsive themes that you can install and customize for your site. You can also use tools like ThemeForest or TemplateMonster to find and buy premium responsive themes or templates for your site. If you’re a deep diver, you can check out Reddit to see what the experts like.
2. Optimize Your Images and Speed
Another important factor to consider when making your website mobile-friendly is its speed. Speed is an essential aspect of user experience and SEO, as it affects how fast your site loads and how long your visitors stay on your site. According to Google, 53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
One of the main causes of slow loading speed is large and heavy images. Images are often the largest and heaviest elements of a web page, so they should be resized, compressed, and formatted properly for mobile devices. Newer image formats such as WebP retain the image quality while compressing the size. You can use tools like CloudConvert to convert your images to WebP format, which can reduce the file size by up to 34%. You can also use plugins that do this automatically on your site.
Besides optimizing your images, you should also use other techniques to improve your site’s speed, such as:
- Using caching to store static files and reduce server requests
- Minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files to remove unnecessary spaces and comments
- Using a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute your files across multiple servers and locations
- Enabling gzip compression to reduce the size of your files before sending them to the browser
- Removing unused plugins, widgets, and scripts that can slow down your site
You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site’s speed and get suggestions on how to improve it.
3. Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are web pages that are designed to load faster and use less data on mobile devices. They are created by following a set of guidelines and using a specific HTML framework. AMP pages can improve the user experience and the site’s performance, as well as increase the visibility and ranking of the site on Google.
Google supports and promotes AMP pages by displaying them in a special carousel on the search results page, with a lightning bolt icon next to them. This can help your site stand out from the competition and attract more clicks and traffic.
To enable AMP on your site, you can use plugins or extensions that can automatically generate AMP versions of your pages. For example, if you use WordPress, you can use the AMP for WP plugin to create and customize AMP pages for your site.
4. Avoid Flash
Flash is an outdated technology that can cause security and compatibility issues, as well as slow down your site. Flash is not supported by most mobile devices and browsers, so if you use it on your site, you’ll lose a lot of potential visitors and customers.
Instead of Flash, you should use HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to create interactive and dynamic features for your site. These technologies are more modern, secure, and compatible with mobile devices and browsers. They can also help you create responsive and engaging web pages that can enhance your site’s functionality and appearance.
You can use tools like Google Web Designer to create HTML5 animations and graphics for your site. You can also use tools to convert your existing Flash content to HTML5 content.
5. Change Button Size and Placement
Buttons are one of the most important elements of your site, as they allow your visitors to perform actions and interact with your site to get to your desired destination. However, if your buttons are too small, too close together, overlapping, or in the wrong place, they can frustrate and annoy your visitors, especially on mobile devices.
To make your site mobile-friendly, you should make sure that your buttons are large enough, spaced out enough, and placed in the right place for mobile users.
Here are some tips to follow:
- Make your buttons at least 44 pixels wide and 44 pixels tall, which is the recommended size by Apple for touch targets
- Leave enough space between your buttons, at least 8 pixels, to avoid accidental taps and clicks
- Place your buttons in the center or bottom of the screen, where they are easy to reach and tap with the thumb
- Use clear and concise labels for your buttons, such as “Buy Now”, “Sign Up”, or “Contact Us”
- Use contrasting colors and shapes for your buttons, to make them stand out from the background and other elements
6. Space Out Your Links
Links are another essential element of your site, as they also let your visitors journey through your site. Just like buttons, if your links are too small, too close together, or too hard to see, they can cause your visitors to exit your site.
Here are some tips to follow:
- Make your links at least 12 pixels in font size, which is the minimum size recommended by Google for readability
- Leave enough space between your links, at least 8 pixels, to avoid accidental taps and clicks
- Use underlines, bolds, or colors for your links, to make them distinguishable from the rest of the text
- Use descriptive and relevant anchor texts for your links, such as “Learn More”, “Read More”, or “See Details”
- Avoid using too many links on a single page, as they can clutter and distract your visitors
7. Use a Large and Readable Font
The font size and style of your text can also affect the user experience and SEO of your site, as they determine how easy and enjoyable it is to read your content. If your font is too small, too fancy, or too hard to see, it can discourage and deter your visitors, especially on mobile devices.
To make your site mobile-friendly, you should make sure that your font is large enough, simple enough, and clear enough for mobile users.
Here are some tips to follow:
- Make your font at least 16 pixels in size, which is the default size for most browsers and devices
- Use a simple and standard font, such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana, which are widely supported and compatible with mobile devices and browsers
- Use a dark font color on a light background, or vice versa, to create enough contrast and visibility for your text
- Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to break up your text and make it easier to scan and read
- Use a single font family and style for your text, to create consistency and harmony for your site
8. Eliminate Pop-Ups
Pop-ups are windows or boxes that appear on top of your site, usually to display an advertisement, an offer, or a message. Pop-ups can be useful and effective for increasing conversions, subscriptions, or sales, but they can also be annoying and intrusive for your visitors, especially on mobile devices.
Pop-ups can block the view of your site, interfere with the navigation, and slow down the loading speed. They can also hurt your SEO, as Google penalizes sites that use intrusive pop-ups on mobile devices.
To make your site mobile-friendly, you should eliminate or minimize the use of pop-ups on your site, or at least make them small and easy to close and dismiss.
Here are some tips to follow:
- Use pop-ups only when necessary, such as when you want to collect email addresses, offer discounts, or show important information
- Use pop-ups sparingly, such as when the visitor is about to leave your site, has spent a certain amount of time on your site, or has scrolled to a certain point
- Use pop-ups that are responsive, meaning that they adapt to the size and orientation of the device screen
- Use pop-ups that are relevant, meaning that they match the content and purpose of your site and offer value to your visitors
- Use pop-ups that are easy to close, meaning that they have a clear and visible close button, do not require scrolling, and do not cover the entire screen
- Test your pop-ups on different devices and browsers to ensure that they work properly and do not affect the user experience
- Track and measure the performance of your pop-ups, such as the click-through rate, the conversion rate, and the bounce rate, and optimize them accordingly
In Conclusion
There are many strategies to make your site more mobile-friendly. Remember, your best friend is Google PageSpeed Insights, which allows you to see your website how Google sees it. Above all, be sure to give your website visitors an easy time navigating through your site when they access through their mobile device by following these tips.
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