6 Tips to Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly
Without looking up any official statistics, it’s easy to estimate the number of smartphone users around the world to be in the billions. This is one of the reasons why, as of this writing, more than half of the global internet traffic is coming from mobile devices.
This also means that if you have a website, you should put in the time and effort to make it mobile-friendly and cross-compatible with browsers on different platforms. If you don’t, you might be losing out on a lot of opportunities for increasing traffic, improving conversion rates, and maximizing revenue.
Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to tailor your website to mobile users. Here are some of the most important ones.
Use a Responsive Design
There are two common ways to make your website mobile-friendly. The first is to make it responsive so that the design adjusts automatically depending on the size of the screen. This isn’t restricted to mobile devices. For example, if you change the size of your browser’s tab, a responsive site will follow its proportions.
The second is to create different versions of your website based on the device. Simply put, if you want your website to display on a desktop, a smartphone, and a tablet, you have to design your website three times. This is also called dynamic serving.
The first option is more popular than the second because of its cost-effectiveness. All of the top website builders have this option, where you can choose from a variety of responsive themes and templates. Then, all you have to do is to plug in your design elements and content. For the best results, you should work with a web design company in the Philippines so you can ensure high-quality work from the get go.
Break Up Text Into Smaller Chunks
Most people on the internet have limited attention spans, most likely because of the wealth of content (and thus, distractions) that surround them. Thus, when they see something that looks too tedious to do, they might decide it’s not worth their time.
One of the things that look too tedious? Huge blocks of text. On regular desktop websites, these already look too dull; on mobile, they can be downright panic-inducing.
The good thing is that the fix is easy: just cut up these long paragraphs into shorter, more “snackable” chunks to make them easier on the eyes. This principle also applies to forms and menus. With the limited space afforded by smartphone screens, it’s wise to use things like hamburger menus or similar methods of collapsing large blocks of text. Of course, make sure to add indicators like a plus sign or drop-down arrow to let people know that there’s more information available.
Use Large, Standard Fonts
Speaking of large blocks of text, it’s best to use standard fonts to make your website more mobile-friendly. This is because other fonts still need to be downloaded by the browser, slowing down customer experience. If you want to use stylized letters and fonts, it’s best to incorporate them in a flat image instead; for body copy, use
It’s also best to stick with standard fonts. Any font your visitor’s browser might need to download will slow down how long it takes your website to load, which is bad news on mobile.
Say No to Pop-Ups
The strategic use of well-designed pop-up ads can work wonders on a desktop website. On mobile, however, pop-up ads are annoying at best. They’re also quite ineffective since the space is too small. Moreover, the close button on these mobile pop-ups can be difficult to find and press. This can lead to inadvertent clicks that can frustrate potential customers.
Make Buttons Big and Accessible
There are plenty of actions that are easy to do on a desktop but are more challenging on mobile, such as clicking buttons. For one, some people have larger fingers than others. There are also areas on a smartphone or tablet screen that are generally harder to reach to press a button.
As a result of these factors, some people might end up tapping on the wrong button. This is yet another cause of frustration, which is something you don’t want your customers to experience when using your website.
To avoid this issue, make buttons on your website reasonably big and space them out to minimize unintentional taps or clicks. It’s also better to place buttons closer to the center, which is easier to reach with the thumb, rather than on the very edge.
Test Your Website Before Launch
Last but certainly not least, make sure to test the mobile-friendliness of your website before launch. There are simulations on desktop sites to preview how a page would look like on mobile devices, but nothing beats the real thing. At the very least, conduct tests on a couple of devices on both iOS and Android.
You should also test your website whenever you make any changes, just to make sure that the updates didn’t mess up your old settings.
There’s also merit in developing a website “mobile first,” which means designing it with mobile devices as the priority. This is because, usually, it’s easier to scale a mobile site up to a desktop version instead of the other way around.
If you want to optimize your online presence as a brand, it’s not enough to have a website. Make sure to optimize it for mobile, too, in order to capitalize on the increasingly growing number of mobile users locally and worldwide.
