Is your website mobile optimized already? Ensuring that your website is responsive makes sense nowadays. It is projected that the number of global smartphone users would increase to 3.5 billion in 2020, an increase of 9.3% from last year.
More people browse for products on their phones because it is more convenient compared to browsing on their desktop or laptop. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly yet, you could be losing out on potential customers? Here are 7 tips for ensuring that your website is up to standards.
1. Minimize and prioritize
Mobile devices are constrained by size. It does not have much real estate to work with for content and images. If you have a desktop page that you want to optimize for mobile devices, make sure that you break down the information into sections.
How do you know which pages to include on your mobile website? Review your top-performing pages and compare their performance on mobile and desktop. Do this with user experience in mind. The idea is to provide users with the best experience.
2. A call-to-action will make your bottom of the funnel call-to-action (CTA) easy to find
A call-to-action is a task that you want visitors of your website to complete. It could be to purchase software, schedule a consultation, subscribe to your email list, or sign-up for your app. Your call to action button is perhaps one of the most frequently visited sections of your website.
With this in mind, is your call-to-action very accessible? Most people overlook this and as a result, they do not get many people to click on that button. The key is to make sure that your main CTA is clear and easy to find on mobile.
How do you do this? You can remove the navigation CTA and make it natural as possible or if it is impossible, make it as visible within the screen as possible without scrolling.
3. Use scalable vector graphics (SVGs)
If you are using illustrations or icons on your desktop website, you should use scalable vector graphics (SVG). Compared to image files like JPG or PNG, SVGs are scalable. They don’t get pixelated but will remain sharp across all experiences.
SVGs also have a smaller file size which is important in helping your site load faster. It can be a frustrating experience for a visitor to watch an image buffer due to its large size. It is worth noting that it is only recommended for computer-generated graphics and not for normal photography. These images will look crisp when viewed on desktop or mobile.
4. Standardize clickable areas and buttons
On a mobile website, buttons and links will be tapped by a human finger and not by mouse click. For this reason, the interactive areas need to be larger. The size will depend on the user but the recommended size of the clickable element should be at least 48 pixels high.
Buttons, form inputs, inline links on blogs, card layouts, navigation links, and others should be optimized to accommodate this size. This will help minimize navigation errors ensuring viewer engagement.
5. Responsive imagery
Different devices have different image size requirements. For desktops, it is 1200 pixels at full resolution. Mobile devices, on the other hand, need images 400 pixels wide. For responsive web designs, you can no longer just upload a large resolution image as this can slow downloading time.
For your website to be responsive on mobile and desktop, you should use two different versions. On the desktop version, use a 1200-pixel image. But on the mobile version, the image should be shrunk to just 400 pixels when loaded.
6. Think typography
Responsive website design takes into consideration the readability of the content. You want to make sure that the content of your website will be readable and not leave the visitors wanting. If your visitors are not able to read your value proposition or any other content, they will most likely go somewhere else for information.
To make your website responsive on mobile, you should also consider the typefaces you are using on your site. There should be a balance between the headings and font sizes for the size of the device.
7. Take advantage of device features
Smartphones have changed drastically over the years. No longer are they confined to just calling and texting. You can do a multitude of tasks from smartphones so maximize these capabilities. This will not only enhance user experience on mobile but also increase conversion and encourage action.
For example, you can list the phone number on a desktop version. On the mobile site, you can list these numbers inside a button or clickable area that will become visible when clicked by the user. You can also do the same for email addresses which opens an email app when clicked. You can also do the same for social media icons.