How important is a mobile-friendly website? Well, in today’s day and age, it’s an absolute MUST for any brand, firm, or business looking to capitalize on their website traffic. In fact, 61% of smartphone users are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site.
So, regardless of your location or industry, you need to optimize your website for smartphone users. A mobile-friendly website will positively impact users’ experience and create a credible base for your leads. It will ensure that your content is easy to read, your CTAs are accessible, and your overall site is pretty easy to navigate for your visitors.
If you want to maximize SEO traffic to your site and boost your conversion rates, then you need to design your website in a certain way. Here are 10 tips on how to create a mobile-friendly site!
1. Keep Your Design Responsive to Create the Best Mobile-Friendly Site
If you have just created your website, then the best way to make it mobile-friendly is to install a new responsive theme. Simply search for “responsive themes” on WordPress. You will find many results and choose from them. Ensure that your chosen theme looks good on mobile phones.
A responsive website will ensure that your web content adjusts according to the size of your screen. This way, whenever your users zoom in or zoom out their phone’s screen, your website’s content size will align with the size of the screen.
2. Simplify Your Menus
When designing your menu options, remember that smartphone screens are much smaller than your average laptop screen. You can keep your desktop menu as elaborate as you want; however, you can’t use the same designing strategy with your mobile site menu. So, make sure that all the navigation options on your menu are concise enough to perfectly fit on an average smartphone screen.
3. Keep Your Forms Short
Another important aspect of a mobile-friendly site is short, to-the-point forms. We understand that you need some information about your visitors to build a potential customer base. However, a lengthy and complicated form is surely not the best way to go about it.
You need to consider that your users will fill out your forms on their phones. So, make sure to evaluate your customer forms to keep them as crisp and short as possible. For instance, if you want users to subscribe to your email list, you don’t necessarily need their home address – cut that unnecessary line out of your form.
4. Clearly Display Your CTAs
Every effective mobile-friendly site needs to have a clear CTA. Your CTA should also be in line with the specific goals of each landing page of your site. You don’t want to add more than one CTA on a page as that will crowd your content. If a landing page’s goal is to increase your social media following, then tailor your CTA accordingly.
5. Include a Search Function
If you have too many navigation options on your website menu, then you need to add an easily accessible search bar to your mobile site. This will eliminate the need to have an overly-complicated website menu. It will also help you encourage conversions to your site.
Additionally, if you have an e-commerce site, this feature will prove to be super beneficial for you and your users. You must have hundreds and thousands of products on your website. If you implement a search bar, it will make it so much easier for your users to find out the products that they are looking for.
6. Make Customer Service Easily Accessible
Another solid tip to have a mobile-friendly website is to ensure that your customer service is easily accessible to your users. Make sure to clearly display all the information that will help a user contact you right away – this includes your phone number, e-mail address, and social media platforms on your mobile site.
7. Ensure Proper Size and Placement
Did you know that 75% of smartphone users use their thumbs to easily click on the displayed items on their screens? Well, you need to take this large percentage into account when you factor the size and placement of different elements of your mobile website content.
Make sure to keep enough space between two clickable items on your site so that your users don’t accidentally click the wrong tab. Also, avoid placing CTAs and other critical and clickable content on the corners. It will only make it difficult for your users to reach those places with their thumbs. It’s best if you place the crucial elements and clickable items toward the bottom of the screen, preferably in the middle.
8. Eliminate Pop-Ups For a Mobile-Friendly Website
Pop-ups on a mobile site can get really annoying. They only hinder the experience of your users since it can get a bit frustrating to close them. This is especially true for those users who use their thumbs to operate their phones.
Many users accidentally open the ad instead of closing a pop-up, as they wanted. Additionally, when users close in on the “X” button to close a pop-up, it ruins the dimensions of the screen. So, it’s best if you simply opt-out of putting any pop-ups on your mobile-friendly website.
9. Avoid Large Blocks of Text
The worst thing that you can do on your mobile site is to clutter it with large bodies of text. Remember that a 2-line paragraph on a desktop site becomes a six-line paragraph on a smartphone. This makes it difficult for users to pay attention to what you are trying to say on your website. So, reduce the amount of text that you keep on your site to increase its readability.
Whenever you add new text to your site, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can your visitors grasp your message?
- Where is their point of focus going to be?
- What is the visual hierarchy of your text?
If you avoid large bodies of text and keep your paragraphs small, then you will be able to answer all these questions effectively.
10. Prioritize Speed
No matter how you choose to design your mobile site, you need to take its loading speed into account. According to research, 53% of mobile users abandon a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. The best way to keep the loading time of your web pages as low as possible is to simplify the design of your website. Take a minimalist approach to design your mobile site and you will be good to go.
Conclusion
To hit your marketing goals in 2020, it’s imperative that you optimize your company’s website to create a mobile-friendly site that will help you generate maximum traffic. Simplify your menu bar, keep your forms short, make your CTAs clear, add search bars, remove pop-ups, find ways to increase your loading speed, and avoid large blocks of text if you want an awesome mobile-friendly website.
Not only will you see more potential for leads, but your audience will also love interacting with an intelligently designed site.
If you would like to learn more about web designing and development, then get in touch with Margaux Agency, named one of the Best Inbound Marketing Agencies of 2020. We provide web design and development services as well as digital marketing services, including content marketing, social media management, and search engine optimization. Reach out to us today to create an optimized mobile-friendly website.
