Optimizing a website for mobile phones is crucial as Google now conducts mobile-first indexing. Besides improving mobile users’ experience, making your website mobile-friendly helps boost its search engine optimization (SEO), as Google includes mobile responsiveness as a ranking factor. For eCommerce websites, going mobile-first should be a top priority. It helps improve brand credibility, set the business apart from competitors, enhance omnichannel marketing, and boost conversion rates. In 2022’s second quarter, 58.99% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Another study shows that 61% of users won’t return to a website on mobile after a poor experience. Mobile commerce is also growing and will account for 42.9% of eCommerce by 2024. This article will cover six tips for developing a mobile-responsive website. If you’re new to creating a website and want to learn how to do it from the ground up, visit this tutorial page first.
1. Choose a Responsive Website Template
Among the easiest ways to build a mobile-friendly site is by using a responsive web design template. It enables a website to adjust its layout based on different screen sizes and resolutions. A responsive theme often features:
Ready-to-use, customizable layouts. An optimized navigation pane. A drag-and-drop functionality. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Integration with third-party extensions, such as eCommerce, page builder, and SEO plugins.
Free responsive website themes like OceanWP, Astra, and Neve are excellent choices if you run a WordPress site. In the premium category, Hestia, Authentic, and Betheme are some of the best.
2. Determine the Content Hierarchy
A content hierarchy encourages website owners to emphasize important information. For example, they can present the product or service categories first. A call-to-action (CTA) button and supporting content can fill the following sections. By displaying the most valuable information at the top of the page, site owners have a better chance of capturing visitors’ attention and boosting sessions on the page. From a usability standpoint, a content hierarchy provides clear navigation. A content hierarchy is also critical to making your website mobile-friendly. Keep in mind to always arrange your content in a way that maximizes the mobile phone’s smaller screen size.
3. Eliminate Disruptive Pop-Ups
On desktop computers, pop-ups can be useful. For example, a contact form pop-up helps build your email list, foster qualified leads, and improve conversion rates. Similarly, pop-up ads can generate passive revenue.
However, pop-ups aren’t considered mobile-friendly as they can take up the entire mobile device’s screen space. If the design isn’t responsive, visitors can have difficulty looking for the Close button. A survey found that 82% of users find pop-up ads annoying. Many use ad-blockers to eliminate disruptive pop-up ads on their phones. For that reason, we recommend disabling pop-ups when your site is displayed on mobile devices. If you use a responsive website template, it may include a turn off pop-ups option for the site’s mobile version. So, there’s no need to create separate desktop and mobile sites. Alternatively, site owners can enable user-triggered pop-ups. Therefore, a pop-up will only appear when visitors click on a button or link, such as a lead magnet.
4. Check and Optimize Website Loading Speed
In addition to design responsiveness, many mobile users consider web page loading speed a determining factor for a satisfactory user experience (UX). Statistics suggest that 53% of mobile users will leave a web page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Test your page load time regularly to ensure the best performance. Some of the most reliable speed test tools include GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights, and Pingdom Website Speed Test. With these tools, all you have to do is input the site’s URL into the search bar and then click Enter. Once the analysis is complete, the tool will provide a performance report that may include the following information:
The performance grade. Time To First Byte (TTFB). First Contentful Paint (FCP). Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). First Input Delay (FID). Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Based on the results, site owners can make more informed decisions to optimize their website’s performance. You can also check a theme’s load speed before deciding to use it – simply input the theme’s demo page URL. This helps ensure that the theme has no performance issues.
5. Reduce Image Sizes
Media files generally take longer to load – their sizes are often bigger than standard HTML and CSS files combined. Reducing image sizes is essential to improve performance, resulting in a more mobile-friendly website. A lossless compression tool can reduce image sizes without compromising quality. If you’re unsure which ones to use, Kraken.io and ImageOptim are excellent options – note that the latter is for Mac users only.
6. Conduct Regular Testing
To maintain mobile-friendliness, website owners should test regularly. Using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, you can gain insights into how a website performs on mobile devices. Apart from that, it lets users test a specific web page within a website. Start your analysis by typing the site’s URL into the search bar, then clicking Enter or Test URL. The report page will show Page is usable on mobile if the URL is mobile-friendly. On the other hand, the red Page is not mobile-friendly notification will appear if the tested URL doesn’t perform well on mobile devices.
Conclusion
A mobile-friendly website helps ensure seamless performance across devices. On top of that, the SEO benefits are advantageous. Throughout this article, you’ve learned six tips for making a website perform well on a mobile device. Here’s a short recap: We hope these tips can help make your website mobile-friendly. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the comments. Good luck with your mobile website!
