Recent Statista research indicates that the overall number of mobile phone users is anticipated to go beyond 7.7 billion by 2028. Given the fact that mobile consumption is growing at an unprecedented rate, developers and designers must emphasize delivering smooth mobile experience to users across diverse mobile devices. In this blog, we will learn easy steps that can help you make your website more mobile friendly.

What Is a Mobile-friendly Website?

A mobile-friendly website is a website that is designed and optimized to work seamlessly across different mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. It basically means that whenever the user opens your content on their mobile phones, it must automatically fit the smaller screens. Buttons must be clickable with a finger on touch screens, and users should not have to zoom in to read a text. Primarily, you can call a website mobile-friendly when users can freely navigate through your website on their smartphones. Making a website mobile-friendly involves numerous approaches such as dynamic serving, responsive dynamic techniques, or developing a website just for mobile users.

Different Approaches to Make a Website Mobile-friendly


Mobile-Friendly Websites That Convert

  1. Adaptive Design: Here, the focus should be on building diverse fixed layouts tailored to different screen sizes, like one for desktop, one for mobile, and one for tablets. Thus, when the user visits a website, the server then detects the device and then loads the website that is optimized for that device.
  1. Responsive Web Design: This is essentially the most prevalent approach for creating websites. Instead of creating distinct versions for mobile and desktop, the website assembles the elements via fluid images, flexible grids, and CSS media queries, so it is usable on almost any device.
  1. Dynamic Serving: The technique for mobile optimization ensures that the same URL is there for desktop, mobile, and tablet devices but caters to CSS and HTML as per the device making the request. For example, consider your user visits your website on a smartphone; the server instantly detects type of device and shows the version appropriate for the screen.
  1. Mobile-first Design: Numerous developers first create a website for desktop and then make changes to the layer to make it relevant for mobile screens. However, in mobile friendly website design, you start small, i.e., first optimize the website for smaller screens and then expand it to larger screens.
  1. Separate Website for Mobile: Traditionally, websites adopted the approach of creating a separate website for smartphone users. In this kind of setup, the mobile site generally exists on a distinct subdomain like m.example.com, with features and layouts personalized for smaller screens.

How to Make a Website Mobile friendly? 12 Effective Ways You Need to Know

Let us learn a few user-focused and practical strategies to make your website appear and function effectively on your website:

1. Execute a Responsive Layout:

    A responsive layout enables a website to re-adjust itself as per the device used. This makes the website adjust to distinct screen sizes without any rendering problems. Responsible web design is quite effective for desktop and mobile devices as the website accordingly changes its appearance.

    Having a mobile-responsive website enhances the SEO value of a website as Google prioritizes website that is more mobile-friendly in indexing and ranking. Integrating responsive layout is a practical strategy that helps websites achieve higher SERP results, especially in Google searches.

    2. Optimize Website Speed:

      Your website is probably the first thing anyone would visit while learning about your brand. So, to deliver the right first impression, it is important to optimize the speed of your website. As per Google research, approximately 53% of users are likely to abandon their visits if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load. Another research stated that even a 1-second delay can negatively impact your conversion rate by around 7%. Thus, speed is a ranking factor which web developers and designers need to consider while designing a website.

      3. Use the Viewport Meta Tag:

        Using the Meta tag allows the developers to control the width and scaling of viewport so that the website is correctly sized on all devices. The viewport meta tag tells the browser to resize the width of the web page as per the screen size of the device it is viewed on. You can utilize the code snippet given below to determine the meta element on every web page. You can use the below-mentioned HTML code to define the element on every webpage.

        <meta content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, shrink-to-fit=no” name=”viewport”>

        If you are not sure how to add this code, you need to first learn How to Edit WordPress HTML? After that, you can freely add this or any code to your WordPress HTML.

        4. Declutter Your Design:

          One of the most crucial things that any web developer does is to reduce website clutter. A website should look organized and pleasing to the eye. Avoid giving every functionality on every page. This makes it difficult for users to navigate a page since there are just too many elements to choose from. Provide only vital functionalities (the ones that users often look for). For a smooth user experience, emphasize a neat and minimalistic design that makes navigation more innovative.

          5. Subtle Pop-up Implementation:


            Design Pop-Ups Users Don’t Hate

            It is not quite ideal for users to deal with different pop-ups, especially when they are reading something on a webpage. Modern websites are full of such pop-ups that cause distraction to users. Often, the close “X” symbol is not even visible properly, making users leave the website out of frustration. Thus, developers and designers must ascertain that if they are displaying advertisements, they must do so in a subtle way. Remove irrelevant pop-ups and especially remove them from pages where user experience is extremely critical. Putting too many pop-ups at irrelevant places can quickly turn even the most promising prospect into an irate customer.

            6. Test Your Device on Actual Mobile Devices:

              One of the best ways to test if your website is optimized for mobile devices is to test it yourself. Browse your website on mobile to detect and resolve any issues that might meet your eye. While testing, make sure that you are testing every scenario on as many browser-device-OS combinations as possible. Browsing must be smooth regardless of the mobile device.

              Testing websites across iOS and Android devices can be slightly challenging without accessibility to a test infrastructure. Now, it is not viable for every business to have a mobile testing lab as it involves a major investment. A real device cloud is a better alternative since it needs zero maintenance.

              7. Carefully Update the Content:

                While experimenting with content CRO activities and mobile web designs, the overall website can be impacted. Leveraging a mobile-optimized design approach, it is important to create and update mobile content of your website with a targeted approach. Ensure that the content is well-oriented and readable on mobile devices.

                Product managers must take care of space restrictions on smaller devices while updating content. They must ascertain that only crucial elements are displayed, and A/B testing is performed if required. Developers can also avoid this by choosing visual comparison testing that will prevent any web designing mistakes to appear in production.

                8. Ensure That the Website Is Optimized for Both Orientations:

                  Contrary to desktops that only display content in landscape mode, smartphones will display the content in both Portrait and Landscape orientations. Thus, you must make sure that the website loads as well as functions in both Portrait and Landscape modes with no glitches, UI distortions, or stretching. You can test it by checking the website in both modes on actual devices.

                  9. Compress Images:


                    Compress Images for Faster Websites

                    Uploading large image files can slow down your website. The impact will be visible especially on mobile devices with limited bandwidth and data speeds. Compressing images aids in minimizing file sizes without sacrificing quality. This leads to a quicker loading time and a smooth browsing experience for mobile users.

                    There are numerous plugins and tools available to automate compression of images, which can also enhance overall performance of your website and search engine rankings. Optimizing images makes sure that your website becomes more mobile-friendly and improves user satisfaction through efficient and quick loading on all devices.

                    10. Avoid Using Adobe Flash:

                      Flash makes your website a lot slower. This not only impacts your SEO but also disrupts the user experience. Flash can reduce loading speed, and sometimes it is incompatible with mobile devices completely. It is recommended to leverage CSS 5 and HTML improves mobile-friendliness and responsiveness of your website.

                      11. Optimize Placement of Button:

                        Buttons must be large enough and placed strategically so that users can select it, typically toward the bottom or center of the screen. Avoid placing the links in close proximity to prevent possibilities of accidental taps. To understand this placement of buttons, you must be familiar with your website builder. But you can also go for advanced solutions such as WP1-Click that can let you create a mobile-friendly website within minutes with zero coding. Just sign up, choose your plan, and get a fully functioning and optimized website within a few minutes.

                        12. Simplify Navigation:

                          Ensure that the menu is user-friendly and simple-to-access. Leverage a sticky navigation bar or hamburger menu. Reduce the navigation levels to enhance usability on smaller screens. Also, increase the search function that users can use to find what they are looking for on your website. An accessible search allows users to quickly find what they want without unnecessary menu hopping or endless scrolling. A search bar is typically present either at the top of the page or in the navigation menu.

                          Conclusion

                          To perform well in SERP results, you need to learn how to make a website mobile friendly. As per current SEO trends, it is no longer an afterthought but a core necessity. With a high number of users surfing smartphones, a mobile-optimized website impacts your SEO performance directly. Furthermore, it also affects user experience and conversion rates. By optimizing speed, executing responsive design, compressing images, and utilizing the correct viewport meta tag, you can make sure that your website smoothly performs across diverse screen sizes and devices.

                          In addition, ensure small but useful changes such as simplifying navigation, optimizing placement of button, and avoiding Adobe Flash that can upgrade user experience in mobile devices. Begin by applying such strategies today and ensure that users get engaging and smooth experience that they deserve, converting casual visitors into loyal customers.