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7 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

The importance of mobile web design

The way people navigate the internet has changed a lot over the years. Gone are the days where you’re sitting at a desk to surf the web. Far more often people are scrolling on their mobile phones, jumping from site to site. In 2021, more than 60% of all search traffic came from mobile devices, according to Statista. This more than likely means the mobile version of your website will be the first impression customers and clients make of your company. This is especially true for e-Commerce and online shopping. Mobile usage accounts for 60.66% of e-Commerce and online shopping traffic, according to Broadband Search.

With that in mind, it’s important that you design a mobile friendly website. To help, we’ve created a list of mobile website design best practices to help you make your website mobile friendly.

1. Keep your design simple

When you’re creating a web layout design for your website it’s important to keep everything simple and clean. If you use too many images or too much copy, you run the risk of your mobile website looking cluttered. A mobile friendly website design should include plenty of open space. When using icons or images, they should be well spaced out to avoid a cluttered design. This will result in a clean, mobile friendly website. When building a mobile website, you should avoid long chunks of copy. Large blocks of text won’t allow for easy scrolling on a mobile website. Keep in mind that attention spans are only shrinking. If you’re not designing your website with mobile in mind, you’re missing out on lots of opportunities.

Ensure design elements are ideal for mobile

What looks great on desktop does not always look ideal on mobile devices. Below are additional design elements to consider when optimizing the mobile version of your website:
  • Ensure buttons are large enough to be tapped and placed in a convenient spot.
  • Make sure your font type is easy to read and large enough
  • Space out links

2. Consider space restrictions when updating content

When designing your website for mobile it’s important to consider the space restrictions on smaller screens. You should design so that only critical content elements are prominently displayed, and A/B test if needed. Developers can avoid this by opting for visual comparison testing which will avoid any web design mistake from showing up in production.

3. Optimize forms for mobile

Mobile internet users don’t want to fill out long forms. It’s important to optimize your forms, when possible, to make it easy for users to fill out and submit forms. One way to do this would be to use “autofill” forms to limit the number of boxes for users to fill out. Please ensure the proper use of <input> tags to provide the best keyboard option for mobile users. These keyboards make entering email addresses or phone numbers much easier on small screens.

In 2021, more than 60% of all search traffic came from mobile devices, according to Statista.

4. Be mindful of pop-ups

Pop-ups can contribute to a significantly less mobile friendly website design. Using pop-ups improperly can harm user experience and drive people away from your site. This is especially harmful to building a mobile friendly website if they’re done poorly. If you have to include pop-ups, keep your content meaningful, relevant, and easy to exit with the “X” clearly marked. Test pop-ups on mobile to make sure the buttons are easy to touch with your thumb on the physical device.

5. Optimize website speed

Speed is one of the most important factors when making your website mobile friendly. If your mobile website has faster loading time, you improve user experience on your site. Users expect a load time between 1-2 seconds, which pays off significantly for your business; According to a study by Portent, sites that load in 1 second have conversion rates 3x higher than sites that load in 5 seconds. One way you can optimize your speed is by compressing images. The smaller file sizes help improve download speed, making your website more mobile friendly. You can also optimize the speed of your website by hosting videos on third-party sites like YouTube or Vimeo. Hosting these videos on your own site can impact the speed of your own, causing unwanted delays and slow load times.

6. Don’t use flash

When creating your mobile website don’t use Abode Flash Player. Flash can significantly decrease your website’s speed. This leads to a worse user experience and often a website that isn’t mobile friendly. Instead of Flash, consider using HTML5 or CSS to build a mobile website.

7. Test on mobile devices frequently

As you design your mobile website, it’s important to test your website at every stage of design. There are many software options you can use to test this on your computer. However, nothing beats testing your website design on your own mobile device. Use iPhones, Androids, and other smart phones to make sure your website design works well on multiple mobile devices. By taking the time to view and use your website the way most customers will, you might come across errors you never would have caught on your desktop. It’s especially important to check for compatibility when the mobile device is held vertically and horizontally. Below are some of the questions you should ask yourself while testing your website on mobile:
  • Does our current design translate well on mobile?
  • Is this the easiest way to access our information?
  • Are links, calls-to-action, and other buttons clickable?
  • Is it difficult for mobile users to contact us or proceed with next steps?
  • Is this design appealing to look at and interact with?
  • Does the flow of copy make sense for a mobile stage?
You’ll find that the answers to these questions and your own mobile experience will bring you a step closer to a mobile-friendly website.

Conclusion

Successfully creating a mobile website is all about clean design, optimizing speed, and frequent testing. By understanding these principles, you can build a website that has a good user experience. This will make your business mobile friendly and help you accomplish your goals.

If you’re looking to make your website mobile friendly web design EarthLink offers a variety of website development services. Whether you’re looking for a place to build your own website, or a professionally designed custom website reach out to our team today.

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