6 Ways To Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Having a mobile friendly and responsive website is no longer optional. In 2015, Google made an official announcement mentioning mobile friendly websites will rank comparatively higher than those that are not. This news didn’t come as a surprise, as the use of mobile is increasing rapidly, and having a mobile optimized website gives a better user experience when your website is accessed through a smart phone. 

It is predicted in a report that by 2017 mobile phone users are likely to reach around 5 billion worldwide.  So, it is clear that this will make a huge impact on the click-through rate (CTR) and conversions for marketers and business owners.

mobile-friendly-website2

How to make your website mobile friendly?

Several factors play a key role in making websites mobile friendly. So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence and not fully leveraging your mobile web visitors, perhaps it’s time to revisit your website, and the overall strategy. Below are some of the low hanging factors you can implement as you turn your non-responsive website into responsive and harness the power of mobile traffic.

1. Check your website on Google Webmaster Tools – Login to your webmaster tool on the dashboard, click on search traffic Mobile usability, to see all highlighted issues that Google has suggested on the mobile version of the website and resolve them as instructed. You may need a developer in some cases to help you get past that.

2. Website Configurations Approved by Google for Mobile – One of the easiest ways to make your website mobile friendly is to design your website on Content Management System (CMS). While exploring different CMS, keep in mind that Google formally recognizes overall 3 configurations for creating mobile friendly websites which are dynamic serving, responsive design, and mobile-only websites. Because Mobile screens are smaller, the trend to have too much movement on the websites seems to be fading away. A cleaner modern look will not only help you reduce your website bounce rate which is another factor to consider for Search Engine Optimization

3. Make Smart Font Choices – The font needs to be big enough so that people can read it easily. As per Google’s recommendation 12 pixels is the minimum font size.  Also, the font style needs to be clean, and not excessively decorative or messy.

4. Keep Coding Easy & Simple – Using bulky & heavy CSS or JavaScript will slow down your website for mobile visitors, which directly affect search rankings. That’s why; Google recommends compressing the file or minifying your website’s code wherever it is possible.

5. Don’t Use Larger Size Images or Video – To create a mobile friendly website it is very important to not use heavy or bulky images as it increases the load time of the website.

In the case of embedding video from YouTube or any other video hosting service, avoid using <object> embeds on pages that you are optimizing; instead, use <iframe> embeds.

6. Use Different Types of Plug-ins for Your Website – If your website is created on WordPress then through plug-ins like Jetpack or WP Touch you can easily implement a mobile-friendly version of your website. One of the useful plug-ins to boost your website on mobile is Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). This plugin adds support for the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project that intends to deliver mobile optimized content that can load rapidly.

In the end, a page which is not mobile friendly but has high-quality and relevant content which aligns well with someone’s search query can still rank high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Remember that content is still king when it comes to digital marketing. It is important to create amazing content while optimizing your website for user experience and engagement.

Looking to brainstorm how your website can attract your ideal client, rank higher and convert visitors into clients?  Let’s Talk