Anyone who is knowledge in digital marketing will tell you that mobile optimisation of a website is just as, if not more important that desktop counterparts. SEO services will tell you that it’s a statistical fact that more and more people are searching for and using webpages through their smartphones.
Optimising for mobile users isn’t a simple matter of just formatting for smaller screens as there are some key differences in user behaviour than with desktop sites. Some of these differences are inherent to the technology of the mobile platform; others are inherent to the way people interact with mobile phones.
The following will go through some of the top tips for making sure your website is optimised for mobile users.
Understand the goals of the user
Since a mobile users is likely either outdoors, on-the-move or in some kind of transit you should consider how to meet their needs in the most streamlined way possible. If your website’s main function is to sell a product, then the mobile experience needs to make navigating to and ordering products as simple as it can be.
Navigation buttons that link users to the content they are most likely coming for should be prominently featured. “About us” or other information sections are unlikely to be as important to a mobile user who could be under a time constraint, so these sections should not be featured upfront.
Build a fluid layout
With the huge variety in screen sizes between smartphones, tablets and everything in-between, there are no one-size-fits all layouts for mobile site design. This is why it’s so important to have a layout that seamlessly adapts to as many formats as possible.
Ideally fluid layouts will be measured in percentages rather than pixels. This can be trickier to design but is worth it because of the huge range of screen sizes this type of layout will be able to adapt to.
Take advantage of the mobile landscape
While a traditional, desktop website will often focus on a one-way connection with their target audience, mobile sites need to operate differently.
Mobile users tend to be more active with social media and tend to share things more. This is why a mobile version of a website should use social share buttons and calls to action wherever possible.Always all quality and organic SEO services can take advantage of these mobile features to boost online visibility of the site.
Mobile users also have access to features like QR codes and in-built cameras. Take time to figure out the best ways to take advantage of these features in the form of coupons and way of fostering interaction with the audience.
Maintain equality between formats
Many mobile website designers will mistakenly believe that the mobile format is limited and can’t offer the same breadth of functionality as its desktop counterpart. While some content may need to be de-prioritised for the sake of a fluid layout, it should still be accessible.
It’s important to make sure that the mobile website isn’t any less functional than the one accessible by desktop users. If people are primarily using their mobile to browse your site and discover it’s an inferior version, they will feel that it’s unfair to them.
It will also imply that the website isn’t as advanced as competitors who have not made compromises between their desktop and mobile versions.
The mobile format means content will need to be re-organised but it should never be completely omitted.
Building a website for mobile is clearly more complex that many people believe. SEO services know that having a website that is optimised for mobile is favoured by the search engine providers they are trying to rank with.
