What are the best practices for optimising a website for mobile users?
Mobile devices have contributed to more than fifty percent of all web searches in the past year. This shows the importance of optimising a website for mobile users. When your website is responsive and seamless on all screen sizes and orientations, it improves user experience (UX), and engagement.
The good news, is that having a mobile friendly website does only improve user experience, it also helps your website improve rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs), boosting organic traffic from mobile users.
There are numerous best practices involved when optimising a website for mobile users. These include:
Th first thing you are going to have to focus on that users and search engines will notice is the navigation of your website. Responsive designs adjust the elements and layout of your website, based on the device screen and orientation it is opening on.
This approach uses flexible images and fluid grids that adjust when opened on any device other than a desktop computer or laptop.
These days we are all in a hurry. We live in a fast paced digital world and users expect your site to open within two to three seconds. If your website takes a second longer to load, you risk the visitor leaving your site, which increases your bounce rate, negatively impacting your SEO success.
Ideally, your website should load within two seconds, with three seconds still be acceptable. Page loading time that takes longer is based for site performance. You need to compress images without compromising quality, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and make use of caching, among others to boost your loading times, keeping your visitors on your site for longer.
The goal of your website is to attract website visitors, catering to their needs. The best practice is to optimise your website for mobile users. You will need to implement numerous strategies to improve the mobile friendliness of your website, ensuring you align with search engine algorithms.
This takes time, researching and using mobile friendly keywords that are relevant to search queries. You will also need to understand your users intent when using mobile devices, creating content that meets their queries and needs. When you do this, you increase your chances of your website appearing in search results.
Navigating a website on a mobile device is different from navigating on a desktop computer. You use a pointer to navigate website menus on a desktop, but mobile devices don't offer this, therefore you need to ensure your visitors can navigate your website with ease from their smart phone or tablet. This means having intuitive menus.
When optimising your website for mobile users, you want to ensure you provide an easy to use and simple experience for your visitors with menus and buttons that can be used with one hand on a small touch screen. The collapsible hamburger menu make it easy for visitors to explore different sections of your site.
The best practice for optimising a website for mobile users that the top websites use is focusing on navigation, providing easy access to essential sections and pages, such as your home page.
Above the fold content refers to the part of your web page that is visible without having to scroll down. This is used to captivate your visitors attention, encouraging engagement. This should include valuable content, impactful visuals, key information, and compelling headlines, all of which should be within immediate view.
Don't forget to add concise and clear call to actions in this section, guiding users to take the desired action you want them to take. This can be signing up for your newsletter, making a purchase, or accessing valuable resources.
If your website is not optimised for your mobile users than you could be missing out on valuable website traffic and conversions. With more than fifty percent of online searches now being carried out on mobile devices, you need a mobile friendly website to ensure you improve your ranking on SERPs. Contact Genie Crawl today and let us help you optimise your website for mobile users without delay.
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