In a world with just shy of than 8 billion people, it’s significant that 5.3 billion of them use the internet not on a computer but on mobile devices. In fact, over 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile phones. So it’s imperative to have a website that is mobile friendly. If your website is clunky or slow on mobile version, you may be quickly losing valuable potential customers.
In today’s blog, let’s talk about a few ways to make your website more mobile friendly:
#1 – Use a Responsive Layout
This is one of the most important aspects of a mobile friendly website. A responsive webpage layout is one that is designed to scale to fit the user’s computer screen. For instance on desktop, your home page might be displayed as two or three columns of content. A responsive layout would convert those multiple columns into one column for easier mobile navigation. If you use a website builder, many templates that are offered these days are responsive, but it’s always important to test first to ensure that the template you choose can be viewed just as well in mobile.
#2 – Optimize For Speed
Did you know that nearly half of visitors to your website will abandon it if it takes more than 2 seconds to load? You might have a pretty fast loading website on desktop, but if the loading speed lags on mobile, you may be missing out. Again, much of this comes down to testing. Pull up your mobile website and see how long it takes to load. If it takes longer than those two seconds, go back to your website builder. What could you cut or streamline? Are there images taking too long to load or certain plugins that aren’t necessary? Make sure you prioritize speed and accessibility.
#3 – Keep it Simple
You don’t have to pull out all the bells and whistles when building your website. There’s a reason that clean-lined, minimalist websites tend to be all the rage right now: they’re simple, easy to read, easy to navigate, and they load quickly. You can still make your webpage attractive: consider adding a few brand colors and hero images. But you don’t need anything flashy, and when it comes to mobile visitors, the simpler the better.
When thinking of mobile user experiences, you should also consider keeping your content simple. No long walls of text that can take forever to load. Of course, you may need rich and engaging content in order to boost SEO — and just provide usefulness to your target audience. This is where formatting comes in handy. Break up your content with bullet points and subheaders to make it more readable, even if it’s long. Keep your lead forms short and to the point, as these can be tricky to fill out on mobile.
#4 – Keep It Light
Did you know that every element of your website has a digital weight to it? The larger the file size, the longer it can take your website to load. Avoid this by keeping things light where you can. Compressing images can make the file size less and leave more space for the rest of your website. If you embed a video from a third party, such as YouTube, it takes up less space than if you upload a file that you own locally. This will also boost your SEO, since Google has mentioned that heavier websites tend to fall behind in the rankings.
#5 – Say Goodbye To Flash
If you have animations or interactive portions of your website, you may have used Flash to bring them to life. This is sometimes popular with desktop websites, although it is beginning to die out. It is, however, often unsupported on modern mobile devices. However, if you still want engaging and appealing animations on your website, you can add them with Javascript or CSS. These allow your animations to shine, even on mobile.
#6 – Make Buttons Large and Distinct
If you use a responsive layout for your website, the layout will likely change the size of the font to better suit a mobile screen when viewed in mobile version. Additionally, many mobile screens allow users to zoom in, increasing the size of the text. This is great for accessibility. But you can take it a step further by making sure the buttons on your webpage are large and distinct.
Not only will large buttons be easier to read on mobile, they’ll also be easier to engage with. Most people are working off a small phone screen and using their fingers rather than a stylus to click and type. It’s easy to accidentally click the wrong button if buttons are too small. By making your buttons larger, they’re easier to click which makes it easier for you to get the results you want.
