These days, everyone is buried in their phones all of the time. Love it or hate it, it’s a sign of the times; the technological revolution has changed the way we connect, relax, and do business. So if you’re running a website, especially if it’s for your business, mobile optimization is a must-have for everyone.
Controlling Mobile Traffic
More traffic comes to websites from mobile devices than ever before; making sure your website is developed for mobile is critical. If you’re not positioning yourself in a spot where you can cater to those who visit your website on the go, you’re going to lose out. And then, what’s the point?
If you want to learn to capitalize on mobile traffic, you’ve come to the right place. There are a number of factors that affect the usability of websites on mobile, including some that you might not expect. The ability to receive and process mobile users will boost your traffic and actually directly contribute to your email marketing efforts. In this article, we’ll break down the best ways to make sure your website is crisp and clear on any phone, tablet, or portable screen.
Looking Good On Mobile
You’ve put a lot of work into your website, and you’ve put even more work into driving traffic to your website through email efforts, building your social media presence, and rolling out killer content. So you’d probably be pretty upset if you found out that your text and images might be wonky for over half of all users. But that’s what can happen if your website isn’t formatted to be mobile compatible. Mobile traffic in 2019 makes up over 52% of all internet traffic, which is up from 50.3% in 2018.
A frequent issue with loading mobile websites is that the text and images, both in their makeup and placement, are meant to be viewed on a desktop. That made sense for a long time; streamlined mobile web traffic is a product of the smartphone revolution. But with that change came the need to cater to mobile web users. In January 2018, there were a staggering 3.7 billion global mobile internet users; that’s literally half the world that you’re missing out on.
Optimizing for Mobile
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you either own or work with an ecommerce operation, or at least have recently interacted with one. You understand the value of the mobile economy, and the potential that it has to change the way we make purchases. By 2021, it is thought that mobile traffic will account for just over $2.3 billion, approximately two-thirds of all ecommerce sales. For those of you that own or work with ecommerce operations, creating an online presence that’s easily accessed and worked with on mobile opens up a world of sales.
If you’re an SEO person, hear this; having a first position on a google search results in a click-through rate of 31.35% on mobile devices, only 3 percentage points below that of desktop traffic. It is clear that investing in a viable mobile layout opens your website up to new traffic and new possibilities. But how can you make sure your website is cross platform compatible?
When in doubt, keep it simple. When working on mobile website development, a layout that’s not dependent upon videos or graphics loading, and instead focuses on text and basic imagery is more likely to load without issue on a variety of mobile platforms. The fewer moving parts that your website has, the more likely it is to be able to load anywhere without issue. But truly, the only way to see what works and what doesn’t is through repeated product testing.
Testing Your Mobile Website
As you build your mobile website, test it on different platforms and different devices to ensure its feasibility and make any necessary edits. Formatting that looks great on an android may fail to render correctly on an iPad, and a homepage that comes up without an issue in Safari may give you fits in Chrome. So above all else, testing and tinkering is the key to figuring out how to get the layout you want in all of the places you need it. A good mobile website developer can help you with this part.
If you use banner ads as part of your website’s layout, it’s especially important to make sure that these ads don’t completely obscure your users’ screens. These ads can be difficult to exit out of, and leave users with a bad taste of your website. The same goes for your collections forms. Making sure that these forms can prompt users for their contact information in a direct, but non-intrusive way that can be closed if they want is the goal to shoot for.
Above anything else, creating a website that prominently features your work, goods, or products, and is easily navigable on mobile is what’s important. An investment into building a cross-platform compatible, and intuitive mobile UX is an investment in the future of expanding your web presence and finding a new world of web traffic. When your website looks good on mobile, your work can be seen by anybody, anywhere. That’s pretty amazing.
Want to learn more? Pirate Labs is here to help!
Related Posts
