Mobile optimisation is not a new term in the digital marketing industry. Marketers use the term “mobile optimisation” to describe the process of making a desktop website user-friendly on mobile devices. But what’s becoming increasingly important over mobile-friendly websites, is consumer’s preference to use apps over browsers. The numbers suggest that it’s a landslide win to mobile apps. Some might even call it an “Appalanche” – as some Glide staff have referred to. But, to be serious, apps have taken control of consumer’s phones.
It appears that using Chrome or Safari have become far too long-winded for consumers and they are now looking to apps to cut out the middleman and take them straight to the source. However, optimising for a mobile website is a cheaper alternative to mobile apps. What’s also alarming is the amount of time we are spending on our phones.
That’s a huge market to be missing if you have not optimised your website for mobile. What mobile optimisation boils down to, at the end of the day, is usability. It doesn’t matter if your product is one-of-a-kind or has an attractively low price. If you don’t set up a mobile website, you won’t see your hard work transferring to leads. So, to improve your conversion rate, consider the tips outlined when it comes to a mobile responsive focus.
Going back to 2015, Google had stated more users were completing their searches on mobiles over desktop. Many businesses have still not optimised their site which can be really hurting their search rankings. A survey conducted by Google mentions that 96% of users have opened a site not compatible with mobile. What should be more concerning if you are yet to optimise your website is that 61% said they were likely to leave a site if it isn’t mobile friendly and not revisit. So it really is necessary for businesses to adapt to mobile otherwise will miss out on the opportunity to grow.
Below are a couple helpful tips to make sure you’re getting the best out of your mobile website.
Don’t over-complicate your site
Remember people are always on-the-go, they chose to use mobile because it’s more convenient and can be accessed anywhere, therefore, it is important to make sure everything is kept simple. Most users will be coming to your website to find specific information, for example, a contact number, opening hours, what your business offers etc, so having that information visible and easy to find will stop users from leaving your site. However, trying to simplify your site too much can end up leaving a negative impact if you start to remove bits of information that may be needed by someone. So, find a way to not clutter the website but still have all the relevant information presented. Say for example if you had a news website, adjusting the headlines of each article to make them shorter and easier to read on mobile as well as shrinking the article images and changing the website layout for better mobile view. You can also place a drop down menu in the top corner for users to see different categories, this will improve their search.
The speed and response time
Do you know how fast your website is loading?
If your site loads too slow users will click off within seconds to a different website so to prevent this from happening you must make sure your site is user-friendly by having minimal load time. For example, removing the amount of pages available on your site can help limit load times because users won’t have to keep clicking on new pages for new information. Google has many tools to help improve your website, they even have a speed testing tool which will give you a rating of your site’s mobile friendliness, mobile speed and desktop just by putting in your URL. It can be found here: Test your mobile speed.
The usability of your site
Some sites fail to make the navigation process easy for users by having touch elements too close causing people to tap the wrong thing then have to click back and so fourth which can become time consuming for many. Other issues include having the font size too small so people must zoom in to read or having the layout not compatible with mobile so users have to scroll and adjust the screen to see the site. The format of your site will need to be reworked so it’s appealing on not only desktop but mobile. Having pop-up windows causes slower load times and becomes harder to use so aim to remove this for better usability.
Create a connected user experience.
Users like to be more social by always staying connected so instead of having a one way interaction through your website, link your social media accounts to create a more interactive experience for your users so they can get to know the business better. It also improves trust, users like to browse social media sites after visiting a website to get more information, see images and what others are saying about them. This is like when you check out a restaurant’s web page: the majority of people in today’s society will go to the Instagram page to scroll through all the photos posted by the business or previous customers to see what the food looks like then they can decide if they want to go there or not. If a restaurant doesn’t have an Instagram page it makes the potential customer’s decision harder because they don’t have that clarification of what the food actually looks like so become less trusting.
Using the tools available
Having the right tools can really improve your website, so researching the different tools available can really put your mobile website at an advantage. For example, some tools can even reduce image file size while still showing high quality photos on your site. This is known as image optimisation and by doing this will reduce the speed of load time making it faster for users to navigate through your site but won’t damage the appearance of it. Ewww Image Optimizer is an example. As mentioned above Google’s mobile speed test tool will come in handy here. Another example is Browser Stack it allows you to see how your website looks on various devices from Iphone 6 to Ipad or Windows desktop.
Take the time to find out how well your site is working for mobile users because then you will be able to identify any improvements needed where it be the load time, layout etc. This will overall improve the user’s experience creating a higher conversion rate.
So now you know the importance of optimising your website for mobile and tips on how to maximise your mobile site. But are you still unsure if your website is really optimised for mobile? Well, luckily, Google offers a test you can complete to make sure your site is mobile friendly, complete it here.
