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Freddy Rodriguez

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How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

There are over 3.5 billion smartphone users globally. 77% of those users are American, and 62% of those American users have purchased on their mobile device.  With numbers like this, it’s  easy to see why every website should be optimized for mobile devices in 2021 and beyond. 

You might be thinking, “Easier said than done.”

We understand how daunting it can be to come up with a great mobile responsive website design, but it is absolutely one of the most important aspects of your online presence that you need to be giving attention to. 

What Is a Mobile Responsive Website?

Mobile responsive means that no matter what size (or aspect ratio) screen the website visitor is viewing from – phone, watch, big tablet, small tablet, or computer – the site will automatically fit all elements accordingly. 

No website visitor wants to see your website as a jumbled mess on a smaller screen or have to scroll from one side to the next and zoom just to find the link they want. In fact, the truth of the matter is that they’re not going to waste time doing that. Instead, they’ll visit your competitor’s site, and you’ll be missing out on leads.

Think Mobile First 

Whether you’re building a site from scratch or doing a redesign of your existing site – think mobile-first. The average internet user checks their phones 58 times – PER DAY! This number shows that mobile phones have become an intrinsic part of daily life. 

Because mobile use is so ubiquitous, you want to make sure your website cashes in on that market and generates leads. 

When it comes to mobile screens – less is more. Because smartphones are not as powerful as your desktop computer in most cases (and internet connection speeds may be somewhat unreliable on the go), websites need to be optimized to load quickly. You’ll also want to make sure your website hosting provider can handle the traffic. 

Now that you’ve learned a little bit about what a mobile responsive website is and why it matters – here are a few ways to optimize your site design for smaller screens.

7 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

1. Use a Responsive Theme

WordPress isn’t the only option for website building, but it is one of the most popular, making it extremely easy to find mobile responsive themes. When it comes to picking the right mobile responsive theme, you want to make sure it’s well optimized and that it won’t negatively affect your website’s performance.

2. Make Google Your Friend

Google makes it easy to test your site for mobile responsiveness. With Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, you can check for free whether or not your website is up to standards for mobile pages. 

If you have an existing website, check it for mobile responsiveness. The tool will show you what is currently working and what isn’t. This data can be used for planning a new, more mobile-user-friendly optimized design. 

3. Use Reliable Hosting 

It doesn’t  matter how amazing your mobile website design is if you have a sub-par hosting provider. Picking the right hosting provider is one of the most important decisions you will have to make regarding having a website. 

If you choose the wrong host – one that doesn’t offer the valuable resources or speed your site needs, your website will perform poorly. Or, even worse, your site goes down, resulting in the loss of traffic and leads. 

4. Improve Website Load Times

We live in a fast-paced world. Everyone is busy and on the go. The last thing you want is for a visitor to land on your webpage only to be bogged down by tons of graphics and slow load time. They will not stay – instead, they’ll head over to your competitor’s website. 

Optimizing your website speed will reduce bounce rate and improve your website visitors’ experience. Google makes it easy to know your website speed ranking with their Speed Update information. You can also test your speed with Google’s Mobile Speed Test tool.

A few ways you can improve your website load times are:

  • Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  • Compress your site’s images.
  • Minify your code.
  • Use caching. 
  • Keep everything up-to-date.

5. Make Your Pop-Ups Mobile Friendly

Pop-ups are everywhere, and they get a lot of criticism, yet they are one of the most effective methods for lead capture. It’s okay for your website to contain a pop-up (or two) as long as it is strategically placed. 

Pop-ups were designed to create conversions and pass relevant information along to your visitors. Pop-ups can be a problem, though, when viewed on a mobile device. When a pop-up is viewed on a smaller screen, it can become disruptive to the design. 

Google has started to penalize pop-ups that harm a user’s experience and implemented some penalties. There are now a set of rules in place to avoid becoming frustrating for mobile device users or that cover up too much of your website. 

You want to optimize your website for mobile users, not get penalized. So, you’ll want to configure your website pop-ups like this:

  • Your website pop-up must not obstruct your content more than necessary. When viewing a pop-up on a small screen, the pop-up box must be as minimal as possible. 
  • Your pop-up should be easily closed. Sometimes the small X in the corner is impossible to see. Make sure it is clear how a user can close the pop-up.
  • Pop-ups that contain critical info are exempt from the penalties. That means – login, age verification, and things like that – are exempt.

6. Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) is a method that allows you to create a mobile-friendly version of your website. AMP strips down your content, removes all of the unnecessary  advanced layouts and media files. The AMP version is served to your website visitors that come to your site on their mobile devices. 

As part of Google’s mission to help users have a user-friendly visit on websites, they’ve launched an Accelerated Mobile Pages project. 

7. Don’t Wait

Mobile-optimization can’t wait. We live in a mobile-first world with most internet users relying on their phones, which means you need to quickly but carefully consider how your website looks on smaller screens and make sure it performs well across all devices. 

Optimizing your site so that it is a seamless experience for mobile devices is critical – especially if you don’t want Google to penalize your website. 

At KangoMedia, We design websites and digital marketing campaigns that convert website visitors into leads and paying customers so that you get a positive return on investment.

Clients that work with us often see dramatic results in the form of an increase in website leads, requests for quotes, service calls, and sales. Businesses choose to work with KangoMedia because of our focus on growing their business. We are more than a service provider, we are your partner in growth. 

Give us a shout, and let’s talk about your business.

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