Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives and most of us spend a sufficient amount of time browsing through content and sites to acquire the information we need. At the same time, Google keeps an eye on such sites as well and ranks them accordingly. This means that website optimization for mobiles has become a necessity that allows you to reach a wider audience. So, let’s take a look at some of the best website mobile optimization practices for you to make your mobile site even more responsive and successful. You can then track your performance with your SEO rank report.
Ensure That The Content On The Desktop & Mobile Is Identical
The first thing you are going to do to optimize your website for mobiles is to ensure all the content is the same on the desktop and mobile versions. The reason behind it is to avoid duplicate content and cloaking accusations. Having the same content on both versions serves another important purpose.
Most of the time, customers visiting the desktop version come across information that is different from the mobile version. This could create a state of confusion. Keep in mind that visitors are willing to spend a little bit of time looking for the information and content they want.
If they do not find it or if the search results in confusion, they are most likely to walk away from your site and never return. Meanwhile, Google might also identify the flaw and rank your site lower.
Use A Responsive Design
Responsive web design has become key to improving search engine optimization results. Back in the day, website owners hardly paid any attention to the responsiveness of the sites. As a result, the sites would take too long to upload and sometimes might even require the visitor to refresh the site multiple times to access information.
Today, considering everyone uses their smartphones to perform transactions, shopping, etc. it is necessary that a website features a responsive design that can quickly adapt to the platform or the device the user is using. If the mobile version of your site takes a while to upload or does not respond at all when compared to the desktop version, do not be surprised if you do not receive any traffic.
You have to keep in mind that manufacturers are coming up with newer designs and sizes each passing day. Although it is hard to keep up, as a site owner you should invest in a web design that allows users to alter their system preferences without having to worry about the site going down each time.
Simplify Your Navigation Menu
When using a desktop or any other platform bigger than your smartphone, you might not have to struggle with the navigation of the site. However, when it comes to smartphones, sites behave differently. One of the most common struggles of users when using smartphones is navigating the navigation menu.
This is because the screens and the overall size of the devices are smaller. Furthermore, if the site is not optimized, the user may struggle to return to the home menu or may have to start all over again. This is why the hamburger menu style happens to be the most popular among mobile versions.
This design takes up less space and ensures the items appear bigger for the user to easily read and understand.
Simplify Forms
Filling out forms on a mobile device is slightly more complicated than carrying out the task on a desktop version. If you own a site that performs surveys or questionnaires, you should limit the number of form fields required by the user to complete. Plus, you should also make sure to only include fields that ask for the information necessary and required.
If possible, try to reduce the number of fields that need a user to enter text. For instance, drop boxes can be an excellent option to reduce the user’s manual effort and make the forms take up relatively less space.
Eliminate Pop-Ups
White going through sites, you might have come across numerous unclosable pop-ups that destroy a user’s experience, especially if they are using a smartphone. If the user has to face multiple pop-ups on the same site, they are most likely to leave the site entirely.
An excellent way to optimize your site is by eliminating pop-ups. This includes ads, promotions, and other types your site may have in place. If there is no other way but to use pop-ups on your site, you should spend a considerable amount of time and effort ensuring it is easy for the users to close them. After removing popups, check website ranking on Google, you might see improvements in your ranking.
Keep Content Short & Concise
Part of optimizing your site for smartphones entails thinking from the user’s perspective. Considering the small screen sizes and avoid using large blocks of text. This is why you need to compress the text and ensure the user can access the required content without having to scroll up or down multiple times.
Furthermore, the content needs to be relevant as well. You might have come across many sites that either post irrelevant information or repeat it. Either way, the user will become frustrated. If you are using images and videos, make sure they are compressed without compromising the quality.
Test Your Site
When it comes to improving your website, testing should never stop. You must continue to test your site for mobile-friendliness. This will give you specific feedback on where your site lacks and needs improvement.
The best way to do that is by testing your site on several different devices. You can try accessing the site on your tablet, smartphone, etc. to check the loading speed and overall performance of the site. When using a smartphone, you need to focus on readability and navigation.
Furthermore, you can use Google’s dedicated testing tool. This tool will tell you if your site is up to the standards. The best thing about this tool is that it will tell you exactly where the site needs improvements. Instead of starting all over again, you will know where to focus, which will decrease the amount of time and manual effort you put in.
Choose A Reliable Web Host
No matter how much it is stressed, some site owners still underestimate the importance of choosing a reliable web host. This is one of the most crucial decisions you are going to make. The thing with choosing an unreliable web host is that if it does not offer you the speed and resources required, there is no point in putting in effort, and hard work as your site will continue to perform poorly.
Your webhost will determine your site’s speed and considering you are optimizing for your mobile, speed is even more important. Keeping that in mind, you would want to either invest or upgrade your web hosting plan to ensure it offers consistent speed and performance.
Conclusion
Optimizing your site for smartphones is a constant effort. You have to make sure your site is easily accessible by the users, works, and looks better on smaller screens. For that, you will need to keep the tips mentioned above in mind and use SEO tools like a white label rank tracker. Plus, be on the lookout for new strategies and techniques This will improve the user experience and also reduce the risk of being penalized by search engines.
