When smartphones were first introduced, they were an expensive and exciting new technology. Today, though, the prices have come down, and they are now a huge part of most people’s day-to-day lives.
6 Simple Ways to a Mobile-Friendly Website
In fact, most people don’t leave the house without their phones. From theater lobbies to the hospital waiting room, seeing droves of people with their heads down, phone in hand, is completely normal.
If you own a website, it means you must find ways to provide a good mobile experience. While you may know that having a mobile-friendly website is important, do you know how to create it?
With mobile internet usage surpassing computer usage, this is something you can no longer afford to ignore. If you are ready to create a mobile-friendly site that will help you achieve the desired results, keep reading.
1. Use Media Queries
While this may sound odd, in this case, “media” means the content you provide visitors to the site.
Media queries are popular because they allow you to deliver a tailored style sheet to various devices. With media queries, you can “ask” a device what size it is, then provides direction to the browser to display things that follow the CSS you have in place.
The media query is an important part of most mobile-friendly sites. However, you need to ensure the system is configured properly for all the currently used devices, not just the most popular options.
Be sure you do this so that your site is viewable on all devices, regardless of type or size.
2. Use a Mobile Responsive Template or Theme
When designing your site, you need to choose a mobile responsive template or theme. It’s so important to have a mobile-responsive design that you can’t ignore it. Also, it’s so important that you will find countless options to choose from.
If you build your site using a CMS system, such as WordPress, be sure the theme you choose is a mobile-responsive one. For sites that are already built, switch to one that is.
You can find tips on how to design a website for your business that is mobile-friendly from these providers.
3. Make Needed Information Easier to Find
Most people reach for their smartphones when they are searching for specific information. This may include answering a question they have, the address of a restaurant nearby, or even a phone number for customer service.
In these cases, the searcher wants to find the information they are looking for as easily and quickly as possible.
Consider the information your mobile visitors are probably going to search for when visiting your site. Make sure this information is in an obvious and easy-to-find location on the mobile homepage.
It is also smart to go through the FAQs people would look for when visiting your site. While you may not want to include the answers in the middle of the homepage, you should ensure they are easy to find and navigate to on any mobile device.
If you aren’t sure what mobile users are looking for on your site, use Google Analytics. With this, you can add the Mobile Traffic as a Segment option in the Behavior section. This allows you to see the way visitors are interacting with your site.
4. Keep the Submit Button Enabled
While mobile devices are popular, they aren’t completely reliable. This can be frustrating for people who are clicking “submit” only to find the connection has dropped, and the button disables itself.
Even though preventing repeat submissions is a good goal to have, the realities of mobile connections mean that you should not do this.
5. Avoid Text Blocking Pop-Ups and Ads
No one likes these, regardless of the context. However, if you are trying to read text on a small screen and a large pop-up or ad blocks your view of the page, it can be quite annoying.
Most visitors aren’t going to spend time trying to find that tiny “x” to minimize the pop-up that has appeared. They will simply click away and find a different website.
To create a more positive user experience, avoid letting pop-ups or ads appear to block all the content on your page.
If you feel like they are too important to get rid of altogether, make sure to disable them for mobile users, at the least.
Also, be sure the “x” to cancel the pop-up or ad is large enough to be found easily.
6. Optimize Image Sizes
When dealing with mobile devices, your goal should be to create images with the smallest possible file size. Do this while ensuring they remain clear and crisp on any screen used.
This is important because the bandwidth on most mobile devices is smaller compared to desktops. This can result in longer than normal loading times.
If you need users to download a one-megabyte jpeg file to see a small image, they will probably get frustrated and bounce away from the site.
Mobile-friendliness is not just about a quality site design. You have to improve the user’s experience and overall load times as they go through it.
Building a Mobile-Friendly Website
If you want to build a mobile-friendly website or improve the mobile-friendliness of your website, start with the tips and information here. This will help you create the quality user experience people visiting your site expect.
Are you searching for more information about improving your business or startup? If so, be sure to read some of the other blogs on our site.
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