If you’re looking to have an online presence, you are going to need a mobile-friendly site. Today, just about everyone has a smartphone. In fact, in many countries, the number of smartphones has surpassed the number of personal computers. This means the majority of users coming to your site are likely to be using a mobile device.
So, if your website is not mobile friendly, it is time to make it mobile friendly. Here are some wonderfully simplistic steps to effectively optimise your business website for mobile visitors.
1) Think About The Content You Actually Need On The Site
When users are viewing your site, you undoubtedly want them to be able to view all the content you have on the site. However, mobile devices have a restricted display space due to the small screens. This means that, if you want all your content from your desktop site to be displayed, you will have to cram the screen with content or space the content out so much that the user spends most of their time on your site scrolling up and down the pages. The overall look of a page is just as important as the content as users are more likely to be interested in viewing something that is easy on the eye rather than some overfilled, overcomplicated mess.
Think about what content actually needs to be on the site. Think about what your users are most likely visiting your site for. Does your site need text and images of the products or services you provide? Yes. Does your site need social media feeds rather than just icons? No. Limiting the amount of content on your site can make it look a lot more aesthetically pleasing to your users. This means they are more likely to take an interest in the content that is on the site, which could lead to more potential customers.
2) Make Use Of White Space
Following on from the previous point, you should always think about how you can best make use of white space, regardless of the amount of content on the site. Don’t just think about cramming as much content onto the screen as you can – utilise the white space. The blank areas of your website, if they are in the right places, can actually give your site a much cleaner, slicker look. Again, you want your mobile site to be easy on the eye as people with mobile phones are often, shockingly enough, mobile. Give them less information to focus on at any one time and they will be able to process it a lot more easily.
Furthermore, when using interactive features such as clickable buttons, you want it to be easy for the user to actually click them. That isn’t easy when the page is absolutely packed with content. Simply put, if you want your content to be clear and easy to read and all interactive features to be easy to use, spread out your content more and utilise that white space!
3) Think About What Smartphones Can Do For Your Website
Of course, you’ll have to make adjustments to your website to make it mobile-friendly but take a moment to think about what a smartphone can actually do. In order to truly optimise your website for mobile devices, you have to take into consideration what extra functions they bring to the table. One of the biggest misconceptions about mobile websites is that they are just smaller versions of desktop websites. This cannot be further from the truth. A mobile website is specifically designed to function on a mobile device, meaning it is scaled correctly and incorporates the features that the devices have to offer.
There are so many features you can add to your mobile site that wouldn’t be applicable to your desktop site including:
- A click to call function – if your phone number is on your site, users can simply click it to call it instead of dialling the number themselves. This also works for emails.
- One-touch contact information so users can simply click to add your contact information to their contacts.
- Ability to add a favicon to the home screen – you can create a favicon for your mobile site (ideally your logo) so that when users add it to their screens, they will be able to easily find and access your website at any given time.
- Ability to easily share content on your site – Users have so many options for sharing on mobile devices including sharing your site to select people in messages or sharing it over social media.
All these features make using your website a lot more convenient to your users and allows them to share your website with others quickly, which could lead to more potential customers.
4) Ask The Audience
You can spend hours and hours, days and days, or weeks and weeks optimising your website for mobile visitors but you may never reach perfection. There could always be something that needs improving on your website and you may not catch it yourself, but someone will. You can benefit greatly from asking your users what they think about your mobile site and any changes they would like to see. Simply ask them about their experience using your website.
You could include surveys on your website or in email campaigns asking those that use your mobile site how they would rate it, what they most like about it, and what needs changing or if anything is missing. By doing this, you are not only getting information that could help you improve your mobile site, you are showing the users and your customers that you care about what they think and that you are striving to give them the best experience possible. This can only create a good image for your business and your website.
Is Your Website Optimised For Mobile Visitors?
Take a moment to look at your website on your smartphone. Does it look good? Does it utilise the features of your device? Is it easy to use? If not, you should seriously consider optimising your website for mobile visitors. The fact is, businesses that don’t take advantage of mobile devices by optimising their site are missing out on potential customers. The vast majority of mobile users would choose to use a website that is optimised for mobile devices than one that isn’t, meaning businesses could lose not only potential customers but current customers as well.
Unsure about where to start? Here at JDR, we understand the importance of optimising a website for mobile visitors. It can help get you bring in new customers and strengthen your brand. Just take a look at some of the big companies. No matter what sector they are in, they will all most likely have mobile optimised websites. We can help you optimise your site for mobile visitors. Please get in touch for a free quote.
