Google has confirmed the mobile search’s first indexing has been delayed. This means that many websites have still not updated their designs to mobile-friendly ones.
A website that is not mobile-friendly can lose leads from customers using their mobile phones to check the particular site. So if your website is not mobile-friendly yet, this is the perfect time to make the update.
Here are tips on how to make your website mobile-friendly, which are summarized by the best digital marketing company in Los Angeles:
7 Steps on How to Make Website Mobile-Friendly
- Choose a mobile-friendly theme.
- Make the size of the images as small as possible.
- Don’t use any pop-up elements.
- Use large and readable fonts.
- Change the button size for mobile optimization.
- Place vital information in areas easy to find.
- Regularly test your website.
1 – Choose a mobile-friendly theme.
Making your website mobile-friendly is choosing a mobile-responsive theme. A mobile-responsive theme is explicitly designed to cater to users with mobile devices. If you already have a built-in website, you can select mobile-responsive themes. Different website platforms allow their users to install these themes to update the design of their websites.
But for those who haven’t built their website, you can select a website platform that uses mobile-responsive templates. For example, Shopify and Wix are mobile website platforms. Then there’s WordPress, which offers a wide selection of mobile-responsive templates. With a mobile responsive design, you can ensure that any of your users can access your websites whether they are using their desktop PC or mobile devices.
2 – Make the size of file codes as small as possible.
You need to make your website as fast as possible to load. And one way to do so is to make sure that each element in your website is as light as possible. These elements vary from images or video, which has a file size or code that needs to load each time your website is clicked by the users. Making the sizes of these files as small as possible will significantly reduce the loading time of your website. And a faster loading website can improve the website’s search engine rankings.
To determine which files you need to compress in your website, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. By adding your URL and generating a test, the tool will list down all the improvements you can apply to your website to make it load faster.
3 – Don’t use any pop-up elements.
Most users are never fans of pop-ups, especially if they appear while reading text on their mobile phones. Once they get annoyed with the pop-out, they won’t even bother to find the “close” button. Instead, they will find another website that won’t pester them. So if you want to create a positive user experience, avoid using pop-ups for your website.
If your pop-ups are too crucial that you can’t entirely take them out of your website, consider turning them off for mobile users. Mobile screens are way smaller than desktops, so having a pop-up notification can block the screen, quickly annoying an online visitor.
4 – Use large and readable fonts.
Web design specialists recommend websites to have a 14px font size on the desktop. But make sure to check how it looks on your website’s mobile version. If the fonts look a little small on your phone, increase the font size slightly.
Readability is crucial for mobile users as they skim through your content on a smaller screen. It is safe to use line breaks and images to make the content skimmable when it comes to desktop web design. But on mobile design, don’t be afraid to bold and capitalize lines of texts so they can easily be seen and read by your online visitors.
5 – Change the button size for mobile optimization.
It is easy to click small buttons using a mouse on a desktop. But if you’re trying to click these small buttons with fingers on a smartphone, it can be pretty frustrating. This is especially true if the small buttons are placed next to each other. The best way to fix this is by changing the size of the buttons and making them more prominent on your website’s mobile version.
When adding a button on your website, make sure to test the button on mobile. See how it looks and if it is easy to spot or click through the mobile’s screen. Aside from your mobile screen, check the look and function of the button on other devices, including laptops and tablet computers.
6 – Place vital information in areas easy to find.
People take out their mobile phones to quickly look for information. For businesses, this information may be the address of your physical store, your phone number, or your shipping information. So make this vital information easy to find for your mobile users.
You can place the information on the heading of your website or in an area that is easy to find on your mobile homepage. You can create an FAQ page that includes all the information your users are looking for when visiting your website. Just make sure that this FAQ page is easy-to-find and navigate on a mobile device.
7 – Regularly test your website.
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly by testing it regularly. Pull up your website on your mobile device. Navigate to see if everything is working correctly on your website’s mobile version. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test via this link. The tool will tell you if your website is mobile-friendly or not.
But as stated earlier, you can manually test your website on your mobile phone. This is the most effective way to catch minor issues which can cause problems with the user experience. The faster you notice these issues, the sooner you can fix the problem and the better experience you can provide to your customers.
