Making a Mobile-Friendly Website
Let's face it: creating a mobile website is a necessity if you want to reach the broadest audience possible with your website.
You must ensure that your website appears amazing on all screen sizes because more than 51% of all website visitors access it using a mobile device.
It's a relief that creating websites for mobile devices is much simpler now.
We'll walk you through every step of how to construct a mobile website in this step-by-step manual.
We'll make it simple for your personal website or online store to expand by utilizing website templates supported by responsive web design.
Step 1: Select a template that is responsive
Let's consider a few well-known websites for a moment. It's a delight to engage with websites like Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon because they are all of a high caliber. Due to their excellent user experiences, those websites are the greatest in their respective fields.
Making it simpler for visitors to utilize your website regardless of how they got there is the best method to start growing your website traffic, even while your website isn't quite there yet.
Your best bet is to look at responsive website builders like Quarkly if you want to make your website mobile-friendly.
Any display, including those with smaller screens like those seen on mobile phones and tablets, will be accommodated by a responsive website's overall architecture. As a result, your landing page will maintain its current appearance, load times will remain quick, and your photos won't be cropped.
Because screen size is irrelevant when adopting responsive design, your website will function just as well on mobile devices as it will on desktop computers. Every screen's resolution will be accommodated with a modern website builder template.
Internet users now anticipate that all web pages to be mobile-friendly. The data indicates that traffic from tablets and smartphones actually outnumbers that from desktop users.
Because every Quarkly template is specifically made to be responsive on any mobile device, you thankfully don't have to worry about how to develop websites for mobile with Quarkly's Website Builder.
Simply select a template, drag and drop pieces to your satisfaction, add the content of your choice, and in a matter of minutes, you'll have a website with a responsive design ensured.
But if you want to make your website mobile-friendly, there are a few techniques of the trade:
- Choose large fonts. Although it may seem counterintuitive given that consumers will be viewing your website on a small screen, mobile users find it much simpler to use websites when the information and buttons are shown in clear fonts. Although there may be less content on the screen, smartphone consumers are more than happy to scroll. If consumers are unable to read your information, you can be certain that they will have a negative experience. Therefore, ensure that your website is readable on mobile devices.
- Mobile consumers are even less tolerant than desktop users when it comes to lightweight coding. Mobile users will typically load your websites using mobile data, which typically loads websites more slowly than a home internet connection. Your site's design must be lightweight as a result. If a plugin, pop-up, or app integration causes your mobile site to load slowly, remove it unless it is really necessary.
- Images that have been optimized — It should come as no surprise that downloading huge image files takes a while. The mobile user experience depends entirely on how quickly a website loads, thus you need to understand how to optimize online pictures. The good news is that you may reduce the size of photographs without sacrificing quality by using a service like TinyPNG. This is one of the actions developers take the most frequently while creating a website that is mobile-friendly.
- Clear and bold CTAs — 2021 forecasts predict that mobile commerce sales will total $2.91 trillion. So, it should be clear that not everyone wants to create a mobile website. CTAs are necessary for directing visitors to eCommerce sites through the conversion funnel. Making a website with clear call-to-actions and buttons is the greatest method to increase mobile sales. Keep in mind that the screen is small, therefore your CTAs will need to be more subtle than on a desktop site.
- Flash is no longer necessary; its time has passed. It will actually be totally eliminated by Adobe in December 2021. While there is still some time for anyone who is still using flash games for web design, you should surely be aware that Apple has already stopped supporting Flash on all iPhones and iPads, and that most other major manufacturers will presumably follow suit. It should go without saying that you should avoid using Flash if you're creating a mobile website or any website at all.
- Simple navigation — There are tens of thousands of mobile website templates available to each aspiring designer. However, you will find some recurring motifs in all of them. On a mobile site, there is less room than on a desktop. But navigating is still important, just like on desktop sites. For this reason, a navigation icon that covers a navigation menu can be seen on 99% of mobile websites. This icon often consists of three horizontal bars piled on top of one another. It is one of those elements of mobile web design that is commonplace since it enhances the mobile user experience. People can navigate to any area of the mobile website they require by following a few simple steps, finding an email address or phone number on the contact us page, or conducting a quick search to find the information they need.
Step 2: Boost the speed of your website
You must build a mobile website quickly if you want users to adore it.
People who want to construct mobile websites frequently complain that the pages don't load quickly enough. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that having a slow website is terrible for SEO, but you might be surprised to learn that slow loading times are the main reason people leave a website, whether they are using a mobile device or not.
You won't affect your website's SEO if it takes too long for the pages to load, but you will lose visitors (and by the way, good SEO is free website traffic.)
SEO professionals are detecting this more and more in 2021, despite the fact that Google rarely officially names their SEO ranking variables.
According to studies, a person decides whether or not to stay on your website in just three seconds.
When the same information can be found elsewhere, why waste time on something that loads slowly on your mobile device?
There are a few things you can do in order for your website to adhere to the guidelines of mobile-friendly web design:
- The first step in Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is to make your website more hospitable to online search engines like Google. Google gives responsive websites a higher ranking. So, how effectively your website performs on mobile devices has a significant impact on SEO. You will receive a selection of professionally designed templates in addition to Quarkly's first-rate web hosting services, which are optimized for high performance and fantastic SEO.
- Reverting to the basics — Data-heavy content and flashy, complex design decisions will significantly slow down your mobile website's download time. Consider your website's true purpose while attempting to keep it as light as possible.
- Utilize the browser cache — You can tell your browser how long to keep various images, CSS, and JavaScript components on your computer. Web browsers can download less data as a result, which has a significant impact on the speed of your website.
Your website's mobile loading speeds will increase if you employ any third-party software or add-ons, especially if they are not made for usage with mobile devices.
Consider the previously mentioned Adobe Flash Player, which was created exclusively for desktop use and not mobile, as an illustration.
Step 3: Make the navigation clear
While having a fast website is important, frustrating visitors while they try to navigate it is equally annoying and hurts your brand's overall first impression.
A well-designed mobile website enables visitors to go from one page to another without losing track of which one they're on. Utilizing simple site design pays well on a mobile device.
Because mobile screens are smaller, any extraneous items merely present an obstacle for your users to overcome in order to access your content.
Nobody wants to be in a scenario where finding information is difficult. To save time, they will simply abandon your website.
Don't leave your elements strewn about your website; have everything set up as conveniently as you can.
Add a search feature to your website if it has a lot of content for quicker access.
The design of a website must include thoughtful navigation. Rather from making an excessive effort to dazzle your visitors, think about what your website needs.
Step 4: Eliminate pointless pop-ups
Everyone wants the message they're attempting to convey to our users to be understood. That is a crucial thing to be aware of if you want your business to succeed.
However, some businesses go far beyond simply advising their clients on what to do and what to look for. Pop-ups are a kind of this and they may be very annoying.
Pop-ups are little windows that show on a page after a visitor accesses a certain area of your website. On a mobile device, they annoy you the most.
They are designed to draw your customer's attention to a specific idea, such as signing up for a newsletter or taking advantage of a particular promotion.
Pop-ups effectively increase a website's conversion rate, which is what they are intended to do. However, you may easily overdo it and make your website appear to be a spam-filled marketing ploy.
It hurts the user experience overall, especially on mobile devices where the view is constrained.
Pop-ups are a crucial component of internet marketing techniques, but they should only be used occasionally.
Step 5: Regular testing of your website
Without testing, you can't tell if your website is mobile responsive.
Before releasing your website onto the internet, be sure that all of your hard work has paid off. Web design is not always an easy task.
Every year, new design options are added to mobile devices. Consequently, concepts and trends in website design evolve as well.
It's imperative to frequently assess whether your website complies with modern requirements. It guarantees that your website has everything a contemporary mobile website need.
The usage of a program like the Google mobile friendly test tool is one of the trustworthy approaches to accomplish this.
Simply input the URL of your website to have it perform a few tests to check how well it works on mobile.
If problems are discovered, they will be listed one by one. This can involve alerting you to issues such as unfinished plugins or content that is too small to see on a mobile screen on your website.
It gives you instant results and tells you exactly what has to be addressed.
Other testing tools exist, with one of them being GTmetrix, a well-liked website measurement program.
Similar to Google PageSpeed Insights, it offers recommendations on how to make your site load faster.
You can download a PDF file of your results or compare them to other pages that are comparable to yours.
It is crucial to do these tests since they help you determine what needs to be changed. Additionally, you may discover additional information about what, exactly, constitutes a mobile-friendly website.
What does a website that is optimized for mobile devices look like?
No matter what kind of device or screen your visitors use, your site will look great and function properly if it is mobile-friendly.
It is critical that your website is adapted for any conceivable situation because the bulk of internet users browse the web using mobile devices.
It's crucial for your business' expansion as well as mobile customers to have a mobile-friendly website.
A virtual assurance exists that all of this work will improve your overall traffic if it works effectively, is simple to navigate, and performs well in terms of user experience.
Without any barriers interfering with their enjoyment, you want individuals to consume and consume your material.
It's crucial to keep in mind that this doesn't imply that your site's desktop version will suffer as a result of this concentration.
Simply put, it means that, more often than not, when it comes to web design, mobile-friendly websites are more common than desktop-friendly websites.
Why does a website need to be mobile-friendly?
Why not, to be more specific?
Mobile-specific themes are typically available from website builders. Every theme will work on mobile devices, according to other website builders like Quarkly.
It goes without saying that your target audience for your internet business should be mobile users since they will be the ones who will be reading your material the most.
By making the investment in a mobile-friendly website, you can be certain that these customers will be more interested in what you have to offer.
In addition, 57% of consumers say they won't refer a firm or service if their website is unreliable on mobile devices.
This should serve as more evidence of the value of having a mobile website for your company.
Nearly everywhere we go, we carry our smartphones. It follows that using a phone to quickly locate the nearest gas station or meal recipes while out shopping is not surprising.
We are aware that planning a project's mobile-friendly website design can seem like a daunting task.
The good news is that using Quarkly Website Builder is a much easier and quicker solution to that issue.
The website builder addresses every facet of mobile design in this post. You may devote more attention to your content and stop worrying about the details.
It is a free service that enables you to quickly establish a business website.