If a website can be viewed on a mobile screen doesn’t mean it has a mobile-friendly web design too. According to research, 80% of the population uses smartphones in their daily life. An immense amount of web traffic also comes from smartphone devices. You can’t deny that mobile phones are the future of technology and Internet activity.

A mobile-friendly web design or mobile responsive design is a type of web design. It is a process of creating a site that adapts to the viewer’s screen size. In this design, the content appears clear and readable on both, desktop and smaller mobile devices. One of the best companies that offer responsive web design services is Split Reef.

Not developing a mobile-friendly web design prevents you from getting more organic traffic. If your website is not optimized, you can lose some potential sales and customers. It is a must to optimize your content and website. This plays a huge role in getting more SEO traffic for both, the long and short term. And also helps with the conversion rate, as a certain amount of traffic will bounce. By making a mobile-friendly web design, it becomes possible for users to easily navigate and read from smaller screens.

Recently Google has also put some light on mobile-friendly importance. How you may ask? By announcing the beginning of the mobile-first design and indexing strategy. This means that websites will be indexed and ranked by using the mobile-friendly version. It is a major change to Google’s old system. To keep up with your competitors, prioritize making some strategic efforts to offer a quality mobile experience. Here are some tips that can help you design the friendliest of mobile-friendly websites. To develop an effective and accessible site, make sure to implement these tips and tricks. It will help you gain more traffic on your site while increasing your conversion rate.

Pick a mobile-friendly theme

When it comes to choosing a theme or layout for your website, one needs to be picky. This one small decision describes the whole look of your site. To avoid all the chaos, it’s best to consider using a mobile-friendly responsive web design. For an elaborate description of Responsive Web Design.

Mobile Friendly Responsive web designs are the most frequently used type of web design. It’s ideal for those who are willing to grow their business to a greater extent. It allows a site to match and adapt to the user’s device screen. Interestingly, everything on the website remains the same including design, content, etc. Using a mobile-first approach will be convenient. It focuses on and emphasizes the ease of use and simplicity of a site. On the other hand, it is easier to expand a simple layout rather than simplify a complex one.

In WordPress blogs and websites, most of the templates are of a mobile-friendly web design. For assurance, you can also check the theme description. However, in HostGator, all of their website builder templates are already mobile-friendly. Bootstrap is another option that is well-documented, open-source, and easy to use.

Include a viewport meta tag

A viewport meta tag is an area on a site that is visible to the viewer. It depends on the device it is being viewed on. This element turns an ordinary web page into a mobile-friendly responsive web page. By not using a viewport meta tag, the website displays at a common desktop screen width. Later, this scales the pages and makes them difficult to read.

To include the viewport meta tag, here is what you need to do:

1. Copy the following code:
2. Paste the code in the HTML area for each page of your website.

Viewport meta tag links to the search engine. And sends the relevant information to correct the size and scale of content. It provides multiple-device navigation. Always remember to add a viewport meta tag whenever developing a mobile-friendly website.

For mobile-friendly keep it simple

When creating a mobile-friendly web design, give importance to the content. You don’t have to make it complex. While designing elements for a mobile-friendly website, simplify almost everything. A clean and focused design can go a long way. And makes it more convenient for the users to access the site. In a mobile-first approach, the main focus is minimalism and simplification to improve the usability of mobile-friendly websites.

Get rid of any unnecessary content as it takes more space. Simplifying the content of your site, enhances and improves usability on a mobile-friendly website. Create an easy-to-access site that helps the users navigate easily. Mobile phone users want to scroll quickly, so go easy on the text.  A majority of sites when accessed through a smartphone have less content as compared to a desktop. The web content isn’t as rich as it is on the desktop. Try minimizing the amount of your text to get rid of any clutter on the mobile-friendly site.

Get rid of the mobile-friendly Navbar

While we are talking about adopting a simple design for your mobile-friendly website. Let’s put some light on how you can save more space on the site. It’s the little things that add up. One of them got to be the Navbar. Though it may be essential for many sites to have one. But it doesn’t mean you can’t add some changes to its placement or display.

You have to maximize what you are getting out of your website. On a desktop, a Navbar can be helpful. As it makes it easy to access the pages of a site. But when it comes to mobile phones, it’s best to drop the idea of Navbar. The amount of space a Navbar takes can be used for images, text, or any other useful content.

An easy alternative to a basic Navbar can be a hamburger menu. The hamburger menu appears at the top corner of a mobile-friendly site. It allows you to create a smaller top bar. In easy words, it acts like a drawer that you can pull out to show various menu items. Another option is to create a single-page layout depending on the size of your webpage.

Say no to fancy design elements

As stated by the CEO of an application design and development company, A clean and focused design can go a long way. There is no doubt about that. The main reason behind a mobile search is to find answers instantly. As there is no point otherwise. Every business should opt for a quick and simple mobile-friendly design. Keep in mind, you only get a few seconds to convey your identity as a company. Every single detail should be clear and impactful.

To design a mobile-friendly web design, you have to let go of the idea of adding fancy design elements. Excessive use of graphics, video, content, and others may also result in delayed loading of your site. Use smaller byte-size images or videos. Try keeping the content on the desktop and mobile-friendly versions almost the same. As it will be the first thing Google crawls on.

Wisely choose the size of your font

When it comes to mobile-friendly web design, size matters. It seems a little obvious that it’s crucial for mobile browsers. A mobile-friendly design means thumb-friendly. As most part of the work is being done by using our thumbs. Approximately 75% of all kinds of mobile interactions including scrolling, clicking, text entry, and others are done with the user’s thumb.

A viewer is more likely not to stay long on a site if he/she has to zoom in. It becomes hard to consume the content and use the website. The ideal font size for a mobile browser should be anything more than 14px. Though it may seem bigger to some people. But this way, reading the content becomes easier. A user should never have to zoom in, or scroll left or right to read something on a mobile-friendly site.

Compress images of a mobile-friendly website

Do you like waiting for a website to load? Pretty sure no one does. According to a study, 47% of viewers expect a site to load in a maximum of 2 seconds. More interestingly, 47% of viewers leave the site if the loading takes any more than 3 seconds, It is very important to have a mobile-friendly and fast-loading website.

It is best to avoid overloading your site with images. Images take up a large space of the server, which results in a delay in loading. Don’t leave out but only use images that are relevant to your content. Make sure to compress every image that you want to upload. This won’t affect the quality of your images while also making the site load faster and mobile-friendly. Use images that are 2 times larger than your needed display and save them for your web.

Make wise use of videos on a mobile-friendly website

It is a well-known and proven fact that videos are a better way of marketing. With advanced technology and sharper screen quality, the use of smartphones is rising. As a result, videos for a mobile-friendly web design are a great idea. On average, a mobile user is 3 times more likely to watch videos. But it does come with a few difficulties to tackle.

In the coming times, the majority of the customer experience will switch to the mobile screen. It is best to plan according to the future ahead of us. For this purpose, videos will need a different design and format rather than the normal one. While optimizing these videos will also be a must for mobile-friendly websites.

To add a video to your site, having a responsive design is crucial. Without it, a user will see an oversized version of your video. You can make use of a mobile-friendly video player which runs HTML5. This helps to ensure that the video can be played on multiple mobile devices. Use a lightweight video player for better page loading time.

Consider using icons than words

In a mobile-friendly web design, avoiding clutter is essential. Any type of excessive information or words can make your site look overcrowded. Reduce the content of your site and only add important information. For a mobile user, navigation is almost impossible. A user will simply click out of your site rather than spending an obvious amount of time scrolling and finding.

An easy alternative is to use conventional mobile icons instead of words. Either it is for words like tap to call, menu, or connect socially. Using this method conveys the idea of a mobile-friendly site. These icons or even buttons work differently on a mobile browser.

On a desktop, it is easier to click these buttons or icons with the help of a mouse. But in a thumb-friendly web design, their size really matters. You have to make sure that a user can actually click the button. It’s important to make large buttons or icons for the customer’s convenience. And to be thoughtful about their placement. So that it doesn’t create another annoyance for the user i.e., pressing one button when you are trying to select another.

Avoid using pop-ups and refreshers

Pop-ups and refreshers are great tools but only for desktop viewing. They can help in gaining new subscribers, promotions, announcements, and offering discount codes. A big no is using Flash. As proved in recent times, Flash is not the other name of technology. It is because it can significantly slow down a site’s load time.

Mobile browsers don’t support popups, refreshers, or flash. In the mobile-friendly version, these constant interruptions become annoying. You can lose a potential customer through these irrelevant popups. They make the whole user experience frustrating. The visitors see pops up that take up the whole screen, which eventually results in them clicking out. 

Avoid excessive use of JavaScript on mobile-friendly websites

Using JavaScript has its own good and bad. For a mobile-friendly web design, its use is a commonly found issue. It is easy to learn and use language which works amazingly fast on the client’s side. A benefit of using JavaScript is that it extends the functionality and usability of a web page for both mobile-friendly website and desktop websites.

There might be some negative effects of using JavaScript. When it is used anywhere on the page, the JavaScript files need to be downloaded. This results in loading blocking, which means it slows down the performance of the site. You can also check if your JavaScript placement is right by taking a simple test. Additionally, the files should also be minimized. As it helps in reducing the transit time and speeding up the page load on mobile-friendly versions.

Include a search option

A search option makes the whole process of finding, a lot easier on websites. Whether you are an eCommerce platform or a food company or even a new startup. No matter what the customer is looking for. Instead of finding and scrolling on the site, you can just search for it on a mobile-friendly website.

Use a search bar to simplify your mobile-friendly design. By encouraging your customers to search for their desired products, you are also reducing the need to rely on a complex menu. For example, Amazon is a platform with over 12 million products yet. But with the help of their search feature, a customer can find a product in seconds. Even if you don’t have a wide range of products, it can still help you organize your products. While making it twice easier for the customer to find the product they are looking for. Or even any specific type of information.

Prioritize easily accessible customer service

When it comes to contacting the brand, oftentimes people struggle with it. Not only because they can’t find a way to. But even if they do, it takes ages to get a response. This can lead to losing a customer or two. Or maybe even a disappointing one. No business either a small or a reputable one wants that. Customers and their needs should always be a priority.

No matter how simple your website is. Some people may still face an issue. This can become a little frustrating to some. Even worse if they face difficulty in contacting you. The key is to be able to resolve these issues effectively and quickly. Make sure your customer support team is active and listening. While providing instant solutions to the consumer. Try minimizing the waiting time as much as you can. It’s best to mention multiple resources where a customer can contact you. So that they can choose according to their own convenience. For easy access, you can create links that lend them direct to the page.

Finding information should be easy

Have you ever visited a site where you just can’t find their contact information? If yes, what was your response to it? Pretty sure, you were annoyed. And it makes complete sense. The same happens to every other customer. When developing a mobile-friendly website, it’s important to make sure your contact information is visible to a viewer eye. A customer should not face difficulty in looking for your information.

Try thinking from the customer’s perspective. Not a regular customer but a frustrated mobile user. If they fail in getting help from you, it will leave them with a bad impression of your company. Provide all the means of contacting you including your phone number, email address, and social profile. Display anything that gives the consumer an option to contact any individual on your team. An added bonus will be, to introduce online chat support. It makes the overall experience easier.

If your site relies on sales, contracting is an important touchpoint for your business. The best thing you can do is to make “contacting you” easy. Turn any source of contact, into a clickable link. Including numbers, emails, and social media accounts.

Use geolocations on your mobile-friendly website

Using location technologies such as IP addresses or GPS mainly to identify and track the location of an electronic device user is known as Geolocation. This innovation offers location-based services to mobile users or even desktop viewers. For a mobile-friendly web design, take every possible advantage of the capabilities of a smartphone such as geolocation.

It is interesting how the addition of a small element like geolocation impacts your overall customer experience. A business or company can make use of geolocation for countless purposes. For example, to connect to social communities, give directions, offer targeted promotions, offer consumer prices in their local currency, and allow visitors to check in-store availability at the nearest store.

Make mobile-friendly forms

It is a known fact how difficult it is to input text on mobile-friendly web pages. Also, if a site is asked to fill out different forms by a user, it is not an effective way of approaching it. If possible, try minimizing form fields. Take advantage of the technology to enhance usability. Such as, instead of asking a user their location, use GPS, only if accessible.

For a better approach, change the design of your forms. If you are a shopping site, your form should not include what a user’s favorite food or color is. Instead, get the billing info and end it simply. An additional and long checkout process is a major reason for shopping cart abandonment. Similarly, to get a user to subscribe to your email list, your form doesn’t need to have phone numbers and home addresses. Keep your forms short and relevant.

For more convenience, you can add a drop-down menu. As it makes the process easier and fast. Reduce the number of fields on your form. Only keep the necessary ones. For example. Instead of adding two different fields for a first and last name, just add a full name field. To increase conversion rates, you can break your form into multiple steps. But remember not to make it lengthy.

Display your CTAs clearly

Let’s talk about some conversions. For an effective mobile-friendly web design, your CTA needs to be prominent and clear. When it comes to mobile devices, the screen is much smaller than a desktop. You don’t want to overcrowd your site by adding more than one CTA.

CTA is short for a call to action. It is a banner, image, or text that calls or motivates the customers to take some sort of action. It is an effective trick of marketing that plays a necessary role. Whatever your goal is for each landing page, use CTA to focus on that. On average, 53% of websites have CTA buttons. Users notice CTAs in less than three seconds on the website. While creating CTAs, make sure to make them stand out. This can be done by placing them on the top of the page.

Not to forget, optimize your CTA for a mobile-friendly website. Just because they are performing well on the desktop, doesn’t mean they will perform well on mobile screens too.

Prioritize the speed of your site

It doesn’t matter what changes you make to your site. Or how simple or complex the design is. The speed of a website should always be the first priority. If a site is already loading at a great speed, then maintain it. If not, then find out the factor which is slowing down your loading time.

According to research, 53% of people click out of a website that takes more than three seconds to load. As these seconds increase, the bounce rates also increase at a fast rate. Any heavy images or flashing lights can be the reason behind this inconvenience. However, if we talk about how you can cut down your page loading time. It can be done by eliminating unnecessary elements and simplifying the web design. A simple web design has higher conversion rates and loads faster.

Test on several devices

I can’t stress enough, how important testing is. It’s like all your efforts going in vain. Just because of not making sure what the end results look like. And how the customer experience is going to be now.

You have to make sure the content can be properly viewed. Test your site on multiple devices, platforms, browsers, and operating systems. Always remember to test a mobile user experience with an operating system. This will help improve the overall site experience with usability testing.

Conclusion

To wrap up, if you use the above-discussed strategies to develop your mobile-friendly website, you are pretty much good to go. These are some things that are often overlooked. Somehow, if you are not optimizing your site for mobile users. You are definitely missing out on an immense amount of traffic. On non-desktop devices, this can lead to a significant decrease in conversion rates. Almost every type of website needs to be optimized. And to do this effectively, it is important to understand all of these key factors. As they make a major impact on your site’s loading time, customer experience, traffic, and conversion on your mobile-friendly website.

If you are looking for a professional team to develop a high-quality website for you, make sure to check out Artisticore. We are offering a wide variety of different services including web and UI/UX design, logo and brand identity design, and product and merchandise design. Our team prioritizes our customer’s needs and ensures to fulfill them. Get the best of our services at the most affordable and market competitive pricing. We assure you; you won’t get disappointed.