“Mobile is not the future, it is the now. Meet your customers in the environment of their choice, not where it is convenient for you.” – Cyndie Shaffstall, Mobile Optimization Expert
Mobile optimization is more important now than ever before. Consider these astounding facts:
- Mobile devices generate 59% of worldwide website traffic. (Source: Statista)
- Mobile commerce sales reached more than $415 billion in 2022. (Source: Insider Intelligence)
- On average, people spend 3 hours and 15 minutes on their smartphones per day. (Source: Exploding Topics)
- 80% of social media browsing is done on mobile devices. (Source: Smart Insights)
- 35% of search queries deliver a different top ranking result on mobile and desktop SERPs. (Source: BrightEdge)
Most importantly, Google utilizes mobile-first indexing, which means they predominantly use the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with the smartphone Googlebot, for indexing and ranking.
A mobile-friendly website improves user experience, increases engagement and puts more leads or sales in your hands. That’s why it’s extremely important to optimize your website for mobile devices, and watch your mobile traffic and conversions grow substantially.
Unfortunately you can’t count on whatever platform your website is built in to create an optimal mobile experience based on what was designed for a desktop computer.
By following these 7 essential mobile optimization tips, you will improve your website’s mobile performance, reach more potential customers and soar high above your rivals in today’s extremely competitive digital marketplace:
1. Keep It Simple: Since mobile screens are much smaller than desktop screens, it’s essential to keep the design of your website and content simple and easy to navigate. Make sure to use clear, concise language and avoid cluttering web pages with too many images or unnecessary text.
A complex layout makes it difficult to impossible for mobile users to easily find what they want on your website.
To further enhance readability, break up your copy by featuring various elements such as:
- Bullet Points
- Quotes
- Testimonials
- Numbered Lists
- Images
- Videos
Also, make sure to utilize Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, a free tool that analyzes your website and provides recommendations on how to improve its mobile-friendliness.
2. Use a Responsive Design: Google’s recommended design pattern, a responsive design allows your website to adjust its layout and content to fit the screen size of whatever device it’s being viewed on. This ensures that your website:
- Looks Great
- Navigates Easily
- Functions Properly
- Offers the Best User Experience
According to Search Engine Journal, “The responsiveness of your website is unequivocally an important factor in improving user experience and avoiding common SEO pitfalls that can hinder your Google rankings.”
Consider enlisting the aid of a mobile web design expert to create a responsive design for your website that features advanced customization techniques.
3. Make It Easy to Navigate: Use clear navigation menus and buttons that have enough space around them to be used by fingers and thumbs instead of a cursor. Make sure your website’s most popular pages are easily accessible from the home page.
4. Optimize for Mobile Speed: According to Google, 53% of mobile users will abandon a website that takes longer than three seconds to load. That’s why improving site speed is so important.To avoid losing potential customers, getting fewer conversions and making less money, make sure your website loads quickly on mobiledevices. Utilize
PageSpeed Insights, a free tool that analyzes your website’s speed and provides valuable feedback on how to improve page load times.
5. Test your Website on Multiple Devices: Make sure your website looks and functions properly on a variety of mobile devices, including different screen sizes and operating systems. Testing your website on different devices helps you identify any issues or problems that need to be addressed.
6. Optimize for Voice Search: With the ongoing popularity of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, optimizing your website for voice search can help you reach more potential customers.
In fact, approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population uses voice search daily, according to Oberlo. In order to optimize for voice search, make sure to use natural language and long-tail keywords in your content to improve your chances of appearing in voice search results.
7. Make Use of Mobile A/B Testing: A powerful tool to enhance your digital marketing strategy, mobile A/B testing (AKA “split testing”) involves comparing two different elements on your site to determine which performs best. A/B testing offers significant benefits, including:
- Improved User Experience
- Higher Conversions
- Greater ROI
- Objective Decision Making
Mobile A/B testing can be as simple as a change to a CTA (Call to Action) or the color of a button, or the removal of an extraneous form field. Many A/B testing tools are currently available for you to start your experimentation such as Google Optimize (which unfortunately will sunset on September 30, 2023), among many others.
According to HubSpot, “Every company has a unique set of customers, so there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for designing an optimal website … This is where A/B testing tools come in, where you can use them to test and optimize your website or app design, copy, product, and, most importantly, create an experience tailored to customer needs.”