Simple Ways to Optimize Websites for Mobile Devices
Many surveys
have highlighted the rise of mobile surfing and mobile internet access. Google
has also confirmed that most searches nowadays take place on mobile devices. The
company further uses mobile-friendliness as a key metric for ranking websites
on its search results pages. Many analysts believe that a large percentage of
users will switch from mobile phones to smartphones, tablets and phablets in
2016. That is why; it becomes essential for owners to optimize their websites
for mobile devices to get more traffic and achieve higher conversion rate.
Each website
owner can always adopt responsive web design to make its website look good on
both computers and mobile devices. The approach required developers to build
websites with open web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. At the
same time, responsive web design does not require owners to maintain desktop-version
and mobile-version of the website separately. However, it is always important
for the website owner to keep in mind some simple tips while optimizing his
website for mobile devices.
10 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices
1) Switch to Responsive Web Design
As noted
earlier, responsive web design makes the website look good on a variety of
devices. The developers can further use the same code base to optimize the
website for various mobile devices and platforms. The single code base makes it
easier for developers to add new functionality to the website or deliver
updated content without putting extra effort. They can further use a number of
responsive technology frameworks to optimize the website for computers,
smartphones, tablet and phablets at once.
2) Focus on the Website’s Navigability
To keep the
user engaged, you need to ensure that the website is navigable on a variety of
mobile devices. The users must be able to navigate the website completely with
a single hand. Also, they must be able to read the website content on smaller
screens without any hassle. You also need to make sure that buttons, tap
elements, menu navigation and other elements of the website are optimized for
touch screens.
3) Keep the Design Clean and
Simple
Most users
nowadays avoid websites that look complex or cluttered. So you need to ensure
that the website keeps the mobile device users engaged, and convey the desired
message within a few seconds. While optimizing the website for mobile devices,
you must opt for a design that is both simple and clean. At the same time, you
need to optimize graphics, videos and copy for mobile devices to make the
website work seamlessly on devices with smaller screens.
4) Keep the Website Content
Concise and Catchy
The website
content also needs to be optimized by keeping in mind the choices of mobile
device users. The smaller screen sizes of mobile devices often make it
difficult for users to read lengthy and unstructured website content. Also,
most users keep scrolling the page while reading the content. That is why; you
need to make the website content clean. But it is also important to keep the
content catchy enough to keep the users interested and engaged.
5) Include Mobile Icons
A number of
studies have highlighted that many modern people prefer mobile apps to mobile
websites. Many users even expect the website to function like a mobile app,
while taking advantage of the native features of the underlying devices. So you
have to explore ways to make the website look and feel like a mobile app on
various devices. You can always make the website look like an app by conveying
instructions or information to users through commonly used mobile icons and
symbols. For instance, you can always use commonly used mobile icons to replace
phrases like share on social networks, tap to call, and find the menu.
6) Optimize Website’s Loading Speed
The loading
speed and performance of a website will directly impact its popularity among
smartphone users. Many users still access mobile websites on slower internet
connections like 2G and 3G. So you need to ensure that the user can access the
website on their mobile devices with a variety on networks and internet
connections. You can easily boost the loading speed of the mobile website by
cropping, resizing and optimizing images for mobile devices. Likewise, media
queries will help you to strip down the high resolution images used by the
desktop version of the website.
7) Optimize Forms for Mobile Devices
You can
easily receive user information and input by including a number of forms in the
mobile website. But you must not forget to optimize the forms for mobile
devices. The mobile version of the forms must ask the users to submit minimal
but key information. You need to explore ways to reduce the number and size of
fields in each form. For instance, you can take advantage of the GPS to remove
zip, city, state and similar fields from a registration form.
8) Use HTML5 Videos
You can
always embed short videos in the mobile websites to keep the users engaged, and
convey the desired message more effectively. But the video clips often impact
the speed and performance of a mobile website. So you must consider using HTML5
videos to enable users to access the videos without installing any additional
extension or plug-ins. HTML5 further make the videos look good on a variety of
mobile devices, without affecting the overall speed of the website.
9) Avoid Using Pop-up Windows
Often common
features included in the desktop version of the website affect the user
experience of its mobile-version adversely. For instance, desktop websites
commonly used popup windows to convey attractive offers to users or make them
submit specific information. But the popup windows will affect the user
experience of a mobile website directly and adversely. So you must avoid using
popup windows while optimizing the website for mobile devices.
10) Consider Delivering Personalized User Experience
You can
always make the website behave like a mobile app by delivering personalized
user experience. The website can easily deliver personalized user experience by
taking advantage of native features of the mobile devices like GPS. You can
always avail the geolocation feature of the mobile device to help the users
find nearby stores, avail relevant offers, and make payment in the most
appropriate currency. You can even use the features to enable users to stay
connected with the most relevant social community.
However, it
is also important for the owner to assess the mobile-friendliness of his website
consistently. He must get the look, feel, functionality, performance, and user
experience of the website tested across various devices, platforms and
networks. Also, the owner must refer to the analytics to find out if the
website is delivering positive experience to each modern user on a daily basis.
Simple Ways to Optimize Websites for Mobile Devices
Reviewed by Nellon
on
04:43:00
Rating:
No comments