If a website can be viewed on a mobile screen doesn’t mean it has a web design too. According to research, 80% of the population uses smartphones daily. 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.

It is creating a site that adapts to the viewer’s screen size. In this design, the content appears clear and readable on desktop and smaller mobile devices. Split Reef is one of the best companies that offer responsive website design services.

Not developing a mobile 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. Making a responsive design allows users to navigate and read from smaller screens easily.

Recently Google has also put some light on its 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 using the mobile-first 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 to help you design the friendliest mobile websites. To develop an effective and accessible site, implement these tips and tricks. It will help you gain more traffic on your site while increasing your conversion rate.

Pick A Mobile-Friendly Web Design Theme

One needs to be picky when choosing a theme or layout for your website. This one small decision describes the whole look of your site. It’s best to consider using a responsive website design to avoid all the chaos of an elaborate description of responsive design.

Mobile designs are the most frequently used type of website design. It’s ideal for those 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., so using a mobile-first approach will be convenient. It focuses on and emphasizes a site’s ease of use and simplicity. On the other hand, it is easier to expand a simple layout than simplify a complex one.

In WordPress blogs and websites, most of the templates are responsive websites. For assurance, you can also check the theme description. However, all their website builder templates in HostGator are already friendly and easy for users. 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 responsive web page. The website displays at a common desktop screen width by not using a viewport meta tag. 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 Best Mobile Websites – Keep It Simple

When creating a website, give importance to the content. You don’t have to make it complex. While designing elements for a small screen, 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 usability and help users navigate.

Please eliminate any unnecessary content, as it takes up more space. Simplifying your site’s content enhances and improves usability on a mobile device. 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. Most sites, when accessed through a smartphone, have less content than a desktop. The web content isn’t as rich as it is on the desktop. Try and adjust to minimize the amount of your text to eliminate any clutter on the site.

Get Rid Of The Mobile Navigation Bar

While discussing adopting a simple design for your website, let’s shed some light on how to save more space. The little things add up. one of them got to be the navbar. However, 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. It makes it easy to access the pages of a site. But it’s best to drop the idea of a navbar when it comes to mobile phones. The amount of space a navbar takes can be used for images, text, or 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 your webpage size.

Say NO To Fancy Animations & 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 site. Remember that you only get a few seconds to convey your identity as a company. Every single detail should be clear and impactful.

To design a powerful UX design, you must 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 versions almost the same. It will be the first thing Google crawls on.

Wisely Choose The Size Of Your Font

When it comes to the website, size matters. It seems a little obvious that it’s crucial for mobile browsers. A mobile-friendly design means thumb-friendly. Most of the work is done using our thumbs. Approximately 75% of all 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. However, it may seem bigger to some people. But this way, reading the content becomes easier. Users should never have to zoom in or scroll left or right to read something on the site.

Compress Images Of Your 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 more than 3 seconds. It is very important to have a friendly and fast-loading website.

It is best to avoid overloading your site with images. Images take up large server space, resulting in a loading delay. Don’t leave it out; only use images 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 more friendly. Use images 2 times larger than your needed display and save them for your web.

Make Wise Use Of Videos

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 website 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.

Most customer experience will switch to the mobile screen in the coming times. It is best to plan according to the future ahead of us. For this purpose, videos will need a different design and format than the normal one.

A responsive design is crucial to add a video to your site. Without it, a user will see an oversized version of your video. You can make use of a responsive video player which runs html5. This helps ensure the video can be played on multiple mobile devices. Use a lightweight video player for better page loading time.

Consider Using Icons Than Words

Avoiding clutter is essential. Any 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 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. It is for words like tap to call, menu, or connect socially. These icons and 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 site design, their size matters. You have to make sure that a user can 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 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 recently, 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 preferred 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 it pops up, which takes up the whole screen, eventually making them click out. 

Avoid Excessive Use Of Javascript On Mobile Website Design

Using javascript has its own good and bad. 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 mobile and desktop versions.

There might be some negative effects of using javascript. When used anywhere on the page, the javascript files must be downloaded. This results in loading blocking, which slows down the site’s performance. You can also check for your javascript placement by taking a simple test. Additionally, the files should also be minimized. It helps reduce the transit time and speed up the page load time.

Include A Search Option on Both Mobile & Desktop

A search option makes the whole finding process much easier on websites, whether you are an ecommerce platform, a food company, or even a new startup. No matter what the customer is looking for.

Use a search bar to simplify your navigation. By encouraging your customers to search for their desired products, you also reduce 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 them. At the same time, making it twice easier for the customer to find the desired product. 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. It is even worse if they face difficulty 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. At the same time, 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 convenience, you can create links that lend them direct to the page for easy access.

Finding Information Should Be Easy

Have you ever visited a site where you 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 website, it’s important to ensure your contact information is visible to a viewer. 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 to get your help, 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 allows the consumer to contact any individual on your team. A 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 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 website design, take every possible advantage of the capabilities of a smartphone, such as geolocation.

It is interesting how adding 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.

Mobile-Friendly Responsive Forms

It is known 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 a user’s favorite food or color. Instead, get the billing info and end it. An additional and long checkout process is a major reason for shopping cart abandonment. Similarly, your form doesn’t need phone numbers and home addresses to get a user to subscribe to your email list. Keep your forms short and relevant.

For more convenience, you can add a drop-down menu, making the process easier and faster. 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, add a full name field. To increase conversion rates, you can break your form into multiple steps. But remember not to make it lengthy.

Clear CTAs

Let’s talk about some conversions. Your CTA must be prominent and clear for an effective design. Regarding mobile devices, the screen is much smaller than a desktop. You don’t want to add more than one cta to your site.

Cta is short for a call to action. It is a banner, image, or text that calls or motivates the customers to take some 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 website version. Just because they perform well on the desktop doesn’t mean they will perform well on mobile screens.

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 priority. If a site is already loading at a great speed, then maintain it. If not, find out the factor 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 quickly. Any heavy images or flashing lights can be the reason behind this inconvenience; however, if we talk about how you can reduce page loading time. It can be done by eliminating unnecessary elements and simplifying the web design.

Test on several devices

I can’t stress enough how important testing is. It’s like all your efforts are going in vain. Just because of not making sure what the 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 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 missing out on an immense amount of traffic. This can lead to a significant decrease in conversion rates on non-desktop devices. Almost every type of website needs to be optimized. And to do this effectively, it is important to understand these key factors. They significantly impact your site’s loading time, customer experience, traffic, and conversion on your website.

If you want a professional team to develop a high-quality website, check out Artisticore. We offer a wide variety of 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.