Would it surprise you to learn that mobile usage is predicted to grow for the next decade? Probably not. In fact, chances are strong that you’re reading this article on a smart phone, tablet, or other mobile device. Because we live in a world where it’s common to rely on mobile devices, it’s critical your website is mobile friendly. Otherwise, you’re opening the door for competitors to swoop in and steal your potential profits.
What is mobile-friendliness, exactly? Basically, a mobile-friendly site is one that is:
- Responsive: A responsive mobile site is going to adapt to the screen size of your device. This means it will perform well on a laptop and a smart phone. Google penalizes sites that are not responsive, so it’s essential that yours is updated as soon as possible.
- Easy-to-Navigate: Have you ever had the frustration of trying to navigate a site on your smart phone, only to give up because you couldn’t get from Point A to Point B? This is a problem with many sites that haven’t been fully tested for navigability. Your web development company should work with you to ensure all the transitions for your users are seamless when they navigate through your pages on their mobile devices.
- Fast-Loading: Who wants to sit back and wait, and wait, and wait some more… all for a mobile website? If the mobile version of your website is slow-loading, you need to make improvements to the design. It’s worth the effort and investment because you’ll improve your conversions.
Now that we’ve defined mobile-friendliness, it’s time to implement it on your site.
7 Ways to Improve Your Mobile Website
The following methods are useful when it comes to improving interactions between mobile users and your website:
- Make sure you turn off autocorrect on your form fields: Being autocorrected is an annoyance to users when they try to input their names, addresses, cities, etc. When autocorrect is turned off on your site (through the back-end development), no autocorrect responses will pop up.
- Create a mobile app: If you want to take another approach to mobile-friendliness for your site, you can always pay an app developer to create a free app you can offer customers. An app will give people an easier way to immediately connect with your website, and you’ll be able to completely control the user experience (UX). Apps are not necessarily inexpensive to make, but they can be a great way to retain customers and build loyalty.
- Test your mobile site regularly: Never assume that your mobile site is truly “finished.” You have to keep testing the site on a variety of devices, especially ones that are new to the market. It’s better for you to find any glitches before they become known to the public.
- Choose readable fonts: The fonts that look amazing on your standard website aren’t necessarily going to look great on a mobile device. Keep this consideration in mind when you’re designing your mobile-friendly site.
- Consider designing your mobile site first: If you’re just starting to develop a website, or you’re totally recreating your website from the ground up, you may want to first map out your mobile site. Many web marketing developers are encouraging this practice, when it makes sense, because mobile viewing is becoming so popular.
- See what your competitors are doing: Take a trip to the mobile sites of your three to five biggest competitors. What are they doing well? Where are they lacking? This information will assist you in creating a stronger mobile presence. Why re-invent the wheel when you can just make it better?
- Give finger space on your mobile site: Fingers are naturally larger than the arrow on a desktop. Keep this in mind when you’re adding buttons and links. Nothing is as irritating as constantly trying to get to one place in a mobile website, only to get to another place because you accidentally hit the wrong link.
No business can avoid the reality of the mobile consumer in today’s marketplace. Instead of wishing you had the right tools to capture as many viewers — and convert them — as you can, take time to improve your site’s mobile-friendliness.