Why is Mobile Optimization Important?
With Google’s new mobile-first initiative, it’s very important that your website is optimized for mobile users and devices. Otherwise, mobile-friendly competitors will rank higher in searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.
How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile
From conception to publication, there are a lot of simple changes you can make to your website to optimize for mobile:
Simplify Your Design
With mobile users, you have a very brief window to capture their attention—a matter of seconds. With a design that’s too complex, your site’s load time and responsiveness could be hindered, distracting from your message and driving visitors elsewhere.
When you’re designing a website for mobile, don’t be afraid to take advantage of white space. Too many distractions—videos, copy, graphics, etc.—will only hamper your site’s performance.
Understand the Mobile User
Point-and-click browsing habits are no longer the norm. With today’s mobile-thirsty audience, it’s best to design your site with the capability to be easily navigated via thumb or index finger.
Consider how a mobile user typically browses a website. They want to be able to move from page to page, post to post, with one hand. Without any use of a second hand. If you have to pinch and zoom to read content, or use your second hand to click a button, you may need to consider a redesign with mobile-users in mind.
Avoid Flash and Java
Both Java and Flash run differently across various browsers and devices. Therefore, if you incorporate them into your website, you don’t have complete assurance that your content and design will render correctly at all times.
Java can increase load times, meaning less responsiveness for users. Flash is simply not supported by some devices, such as Apple products. With iPhones accounting for around 30% of the smartphone market, a significant portion of your audience may not be able to access your content if you use Flash.
Keep Content Concise
Less is more. That theme holds true for all mobile optimization, including with content. As mobile devices have smaller screens, there’s much less space to read and scroll through text.
Readers want to scroll and absorb content quickly, so be sure to only include essential copy that grabs the reader’s attention and provides overall value.
Choose Visuals Over Text
Whenever it’s possible to replace text with a visual or graphic—do it. Visuals prevent your site from getting cluttered and allow for better response times.
Simple visuals icons over text—such as social media icons—also indicate to a mobile-user that your site is optimized and easy to use.
Optimize Your Images
Images, videos, and graphics are always preferred when creating content for a mobile interface. However, it’s important that you strip down heavy media files to prevent your website from lagging.
Bulky files can easily be resized, cropped, and saved as low-resolution versions specifically for mobile optimization.
Design Mobile Forms
When designing a form for mobile, only include the minimum amount of information needed in order to contact a lead. Be sure to also limit included text.
For example, while on a desktop form you may ask for: name, email address, company name, website, etc. But with a mobile form, you may only ask for name and email.
Check for Responsiveness
If your website doesn’t have a quick load time and responsive interface, chances are you’ll lose leads to better-equipped competitors.
In addition to reducing clutter to promote better responsiveness, free SEO tools, such as Am I Responsive, will check your website’s responsiveness on various devices, such as desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone.
Test and Test Again
You can never do enough testing. Be sure to test your website and content on various different devices, platforms, and operating systems. This will allow you to see how your website appears when browsing in a variety of different ways.
To get a more comprehensive look at your website’s optimization, free SEO tools like Varvy will match your website up against Google’s various ranking factors and develop a custom report on areas that need improvement.
Mobile Optimization and Your Brand
Optimizing your website for mobile doesn’t have to be difficult. Besides these nine great tips, there are plenty of free resources online to help get you started today.
Simply don’t have the time to implement your own optimization strategy? When you partner with mXtr Automation, we work with you to develop a customized marketing strategy that encompasses your entire digital approach–from mobile optimization to ongoing nurture. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation.
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