Why do you need mobile-friendliness? According to Google, 91% of the world's population already own a phone, in fact, the number of personal smartphones surpasses computer ownership by household by 12%. What is more, Google reports that 60.66% of the traffic is generated by mobile phones. And you got it: if the mobile version of your website is not on par with the web version, your conversion is going to suffer. Not only the mobile visitors won’t be staying on your website for long, but they also are not going to buy anything from you. All of that means that the cost-effectiveness of your advertising can take a hit as well. Don’t worry though – we got you covered. In this article, you’ll find a few suggestions which will help you achieve a baseline mobile optimization for your website

Use templates or find a design agency

When making a website on your own, you can always choose a mobile-friendly template if there is one. Almost every website constructor has such a template. However, if you want your website to be truly impeccable, then the best bet would be to find a design studio and utilize their skills in making your website mobile friendly. Web design is a complicated profession, and there are a lot of nuances and tricks.

For instance, a design agency would make sure that the UI/UX design is optimized not only for mobile phones but for conversions as well. Every business has its own unique requirements and the same goes for user experience. Professionals in user experience design will help convert your website visitors into customers in an instant. This way you not only get the best mobile friendliness possible but also your website will be unique. Don’t make a mistake by opting for another “cloned” website, because there are already millions of them.  

Mind your text blocks

Copy is the main selling agent on your website. However, if there’s too much of it, especially if you view it on a mobile device, it may be the silent killer of conversion. In reality, text blocks that take dozens of scrolls to get through are not enticing. But don’t worry, there’s no need to get rid of a bunch of text for the mobile version of your website. One way to make it work is by using disclosure widgets. This function hides your text and if someone wants to read your beautiful copy then they can just press a plus icon and the text will appear.

But that’s not it for the text. UI design and text on the website are closely related. Responsive text that performs well on all screen resolutions requires attention to detail. For instance, choosing the right font is not a trivial task. Though top website builders have this covered, it’s always good to check with a design or branding agency to make your website mobile-friendly. Researching this topic on your own is a lot of pain already. But doing it right takes a lot of A/B testing and money spent. From this point of view, getting a web site design company to do the work is a wise investment that saves you lots of trouble.

Loading speed

You can have the best website that looks great on a laptop and converts like crazy. But when it’s open on a smartphone and it’s not loading fast enough, then visitors start to leave. It’s a proven fact that the longer it takes for a visitor to load the website, the less likely they are going to stay and buy. You’ve experienced it yourselves – when a website is loading like forever, you just close the tab.

Speed is even more essential for mobile versions due to some limitations in the processing power of mobile devices. Your smartphone is not as powerful as your computer, and that’s why the website content should be optimized as well. It’s all about making sure that images and videos do not take up a lot of space on your website. The image file size should be no more than 200-300 KB. And there’s no need to upload videos directly to the website file storage. You just have to upload your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and insert the link.

Then there are plugins that may keep the loading speed low. Having a lot of them active may look cool, but it won’t do any good for your website. Keep the number low and leave only essential ones. Remember, the slower your website is, the lower its search ranking.

It would also be worthwhile to remove all on-hover and unnecessary interface design animations. On-hover animations, for example, are used only for web versions anyways. And if you keep them on your mobile version, they just won’t show up. It’s bad for the loading speed and, thus, for the website ranking.

UI & UX design optimization

If the website looks stunning when you use the web version, it doesn’t mean that it will look just as flawless on mobile phones. Always double-check all mobile UI elements to make them look good. Just one smallest missing detail could potentially thwart visitors and leave you with no purchases. Check every button and icon so it all looks good on mobile devices and tablets.

Making your website sections appear separate if they convey different meanings is like putting periods at the end of every sentence. You can achieve this by making adjacent sections of different colors, for example.

Also, make sure that every call-to-action UX element is clearly visible and serves its purpose – to encourage action. If you don’t remind your visitors to do something then they’re as good as gone.

Keeping spacing equal everywhere is important too. For example, spacing between sections and within them should be consistent. If there’s haywire with no consistency then the website will look unprofessional. The same goes for the website grid. Everything that there is should be in that grid.

It all may sound super complicated, and it really is. There are a lot of things to keep tabs on, and even the best advice can be messed up without proper execution. That’s why it’s a good idea to get in touch with a design studio and receive advice on interface design and website optimization.

Test different screen resolutions

When you think you’re done and there’s nothing left to improve on, there’s this “small” thing. If your website looks great on A mobile device, remember that there are dozens of different screen sizes when it comes to smartphones. For example, what looks good on an iPhone Pro may look not so good on an iPhone Mini.

If you got it all covered, then it’s time to run some thorough checking. For starters, find some contrast and accessibility checkers. Though the majority of these apps are paid, you can check your website’s mobile friendliness for free with this Google solution.

Accessibility is crucial not only for mobile versions but also for web versions of the website. It’s not just design aspects that have to be improved and optimized. Clean code is immensely important. And we’ll talk about it in our next articles.

In conclusion

If you follow all these outlined principles, there’s a chance that your website will be highly mobile friendly and your customers will have a flawless experience when shopping online with you. However, for the uninitiated, it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to make everything right in one go. Constant testing and relentless improvement have always been key to creating high-performing websites. Now you have the knowledge – the rest is up to you!