It’s no secret that computing has transitioned from desktop to mobile. A majority of users are accessing information on their smartphones and tablets as opposed to desktop websites. This shift means one thing: having a highly responsive and mobile-optimized website isn’t just a good tradition—it’s a must!
When was the last time you accessed a website that wasn’t mobile-friendly? I’m sure your fingers could hardly select those tiny links that you found on that site—which made navigation process tough. Having determined navigation process to be extremely difficult on that website, I’m sure that you left it without getting hold of information that you’d wanted.
If such as a website is your digital marketing platform, then you’ll have a lost an important visitor—who would’ve transformed into a loyal customer. This is a fact that you should avoid at all costs if you’d like to tap into the massive potential that’s availed by digital marketing.
But reaching a majority of customers isn’t the only reason your website should be mobile-friendly. The change in Google algorithm to incorporate mobile responsiveness during search means that you’ve to design mobile-friendly websites for them to be found by visitors and customers. As a matter of fact, Google doesn’t want to refer mobile users to websites that have poor and exasperating browsing experiences.
So, is your website meeting the needs of your mobile users? Good question.
In “8 Ultimate Tips for Highly Responsive Mobile-Optimized Websites” we explore features that your site should have if you wish to promote your firm’s bottom line. Let’s dive in.
Tips for mobile-friendly websites
Before we dive into tips for mobile-friendly websites, it’s vital to note that the user we’re developing a website for is “mobile.” These are users that expect an entirely different web experience from your website as opposed to standard desktop sites.
For instance, some may just want to get directions to office location, others may want your contact numbers or maps to your store locations. In a nutshell, such users are not into lengthy information such as white papers or e-books. Now, with that in mind, here are tips that you should have in mind when designing mobile-friendly websites:
#1: Always simplify your content
You’ve already identified who your buyer personas are—by conducting marketing research—and understanding what content you’d like to share with them. It’s time you go a step further by simplifying this content in a manner that your mobile user will understand. You should explain your content using measures that are as simple as possible.
#2: Optimize your page titles and Meta descriptions
If you’re working with a less screen size for mobile devices, you should optimize your web page title and Meta definitions to fit that size. This will help your mobile users when they’re searching for your content using their mobile devices. To achieve this, you’ve to be as concise as possible—without sacrificing the quality of your content—when creating your page titles, URLs, and Meta definitions.
#3: Ensure your site’s responsive configurations are mobile-optimized
The most vital decision that you’ll make when setting up your mobile website will be ensuring that it is responsive. While you’ll also have to figure out whether your website is dynamic or a separate site with its configuration—it’s important to improve its responsiveness if you want your mobile users to access it without many hassles.
You can use CSS3 to help you define media queries so that you serve the same content to your mobile and desktop users—using the same fluid grid and flexible designs that automatically adapts to the size of your mobile users’ smartphone or tablets’ screen.
#4: Avoid using pop-up windows
The process of navigating between several tabs in mobile browser’s window can be quite challenging and cause slow load times for your website. To steer around this problem, you can block pop-up windows in your mobile website—by alerting your mobile users on how they can navigate back to original pages.
#5: Reduce unnecessary amount of text is entered from keypads
Here’s a fact—majority of mobile users find it extremely difficult to use their keyboards—some mobile devices have very tiny keypads. For you to assist such users, you’ve to design your website in a manner that doesn’t require too much text to be entered from their keypads.
How can you reduce unnecessary entry of text through keypads? Well, you can design your website with drop-down menus, checklists, and other pre-populated fields to help your users with data entry. By developing your website with these tools, you’ll be allowing mobile users who have tiny keypads to access your content.
#6: Avoid using Flash
Some mobile devices may be lacking the plugins to access flash applications. Therefore, if you create your website with flash, you’ll be preventing users who don’t have flash plugins on their mobile devices to access your content. You can use HTML5 instead of flash to create the same special effects that you’d achieve with flash.
#7: Plan your content around readability
The content that you’d like to share with your customers has to be decipherable for it to make an impact concerning digital marketing. In this regard, you’ve to ensure that your content is readable by ensuring that it’s:
- Large enough—with easy-to-read text.
- Has large and clear images that can be understood.
- Simple regarding layouts.
- Has large and mobile-friendly CTA’s (Call to Actions).
#8: Optimize your website for local search
If your company has local content that you’d like to share with customers within a smaller geographical region such as a city, a town or a country, it’s vital that you optimize your website for local search. You can normalize the name of your business, your contact address, your city, and your site’s Metadata.
The Bottom Line
The shift from desktop-based computing to mobile-based computing means that you can only succeed with digital marketing if you craft your strategies around websites that are highly responsive and mobile-friendly. Highly responsive and mobile-friendly website can help with your firm’s bottom line—since you’ll be able to market your products to a majority of users who use these devices to access information.
That’s why you’ve to ensure that your website has simplified content, optimized page titles and Meta descriptions, responsive configurations with no pop-up windows and flash, content that’s readable and is optimized for local search. Well, there you have it. Share with us your thoughts and experiences concerning mobile-optimized websites.
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