Guide To Making Your Website Mobile-Friendly
In this article you will learn:
Why making your website mobile-friendly matters
Four actionable steps to make your website mobile-friendly
When it comes to online browsing, cell phones have taken over. In South Africa, 77% of users will view your website on a small mobile screen. When websites are designed and created, it is almost always on a computer. While this is completely acceptable, it is important to keep the mobile view in mind. Make sure have a look at how your website looks and functions on a phone screen during your development process. You can do this by ‘inspecting’ the page (with a right-click, the option should become available) and selecting the specs you would like to view the website in. Alternatively, if your site is already up and running, try out Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test to see which areas need more work.
If you’re building mobile-first, the good news is you don’t have to start from scratch: there are a whole host of mobile-friendly templates out there on sites like Squarespace, Wix or even Canva.
Either way, there are a few general rules to follow if you’re looking to make your website mobile-friendly.
Rule #1: Less is more
This doesn’t mean you need to reduce the amount of information or number of products and services on your pages, it just means your web design should be cleverly organised to content in attractive, bite-sized chunks. Try simplifying your home page by selecting the most important information to be displayed with collapsible sections for more detail. It’s also important to divide your information into relevant pages; like ‘About Us’ ‘product’ or ‘contact’. The trick is to not overwhelm the user at first glance, and to keep things clear and concise.
Make sure any text you do keep really has a purpose and is big enough to be easily readable on a phone screen.
Rule #2: Need for speed
Along with the increased usage of smartphones, came the expectation of instant access to information. This, coupled with the improvement of connectivity and internet speed has resulted in a very low tolerance for slow website loading time. Your bounce rate (i.e. the number of people who enter and then leave your site instead of reading on) is directly linked to page load time. This means that rather than waiting for something to load, a user will leave to find a website that delivers information faster. Keep in mind that too many images, videos or interactive elements on a page can increase the load time, which is why rule #1 is so important.
Speed can even affect how your website performs on search engines too, since Google prioritises websites that load quickly. A slow load speed therefore won’t only turn away customers, it could limit your visibility to new customers too. There are some smart ways to lighten the load, like compressing images (you can use free platforms like Kraken.io to do this) and hosting videos on third-party sites like YouTube.
Rule #3: Test, test, test
Ask people in your network (the more the better) to test your website’s speed (from both computers and phones). This will help you to spot any glitches and report on the overall user experience. Make sure the important parts of your site, like the order and purchase processes, work seamlessly before you launch, so you don’t lose any business due to errors. Ensure you test each page equally as bugs, typos and untested links could threaten your business’ legitimacy in the eyes of potential customers and send them straight to your competitors.
Rule #4: Think mobile-first
Adopt a mobile-first approach to every new piece of content you create to ensure that everything that features on your website can be viewed and used properly on a mobile screen. To maintain a professional feel, your websites journey needs to be seamless, irrespective of where a customer browses from. After all, there’s no point investing time and energy into developing a fantastic website that doesn’t work on a range of devices.
To find out more about why you need a business website and some starting pointers on how to populate it, watch our short video here.
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