How to Make A Website Mobile Friendly?

Nowadays, making a mobile-friendly website is easy, but does it meet the requirements of mobile users? A mobile site is entirely different from a traditional portal. Its functioning and features are different, and even the backend processes of mobile portals are unique. Given that, it’s essential to bear in mind some best practices that will assist you in building a strong web presence.

You’ve spent a great deal of time and effort crafting a website that best fits the specific needs of your customers or readers, but have you thought about your mobile audience? To make a website mobile-friendly, you need to think about designing for smartphones and laptops and a wide range of devices.

How to Make A Website Mobile Friendly

Ways to Make A Website Mobile-friendly

The ways to make a website mobile-friendly are given below. Learn how to optimize a website for mobile. Whether it is your business or personal website.

1. Responsive design

A responsive design allows your site to adapt to whatever new forms of technology it’s loaded on in the future, but to keep it up-to-date, you’ll need to revisit this design periodically.

There are two main strategies for optimizing your site for mobile devices, including adaptive and responsive design. Adaptive design detects and identifies the user’s device, automatically generating the most optimized page design. Responsive design creates a full website that can also automatically adjust its content. If these web designs are new, you can brush up on your skills to stay updated.

2. Simple UI

How easy is your site to navigate? Clear, well-defined tabs and links are necessary to help your site transition back to a smaller screen. Your visitors will quickly leave if it’s too hard to find the information they want. At the same time, you should avoid using Flash or Javascript, which could slow downloading times.

3. Optimize images

When you’re writing for multiple platforms, be sure that your content is streamlined and efficient. Every word should be there out of necessity, with headlines inviting users to click and learn more. Avoid burdening your site with too many images, making it slower to load. Images may look great on a large screen, but they can be confusing and distracting on a smaller one. Be generous with your use of white space.

4. Always update

Finally, be prepared to test and retest your site every so often to ensure it’s operating at the most desirable level, no matter the screen size. Don’t forget about your website once it’s up and running – you’ll need to keep testing and tweaking to get the best results.

5. Fast loading speed

Mobile websites should load up faster, so keep the images and render-blocking elements optimized. Also, most users don’t have the patience to keep scanning different pages and digging deeper into the site. So, keep the site’s layout as streamlined as possible. You need to create an interwoven user experience so that users spend a good amount of time absorbing all the content on the site. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your website and its pages.

6. Avoid pop-ups

Using pop-up windows on desktop portals is okay, but avoid using them on mobile versions. These pop-up windows create multiple tabs and browser windows that users find difficult to browse. Moreover, it can also increase the loading time. If you need to open up a new browser window, ensure that you alert the users so they know how to get back to the original page.

7. Use mobile redirects

Once your portal is ready to go live, make sure you put redirects in place so that whenever a visitor tries to access it via the mobile device, it redirects them to the mobile-optimized version of the site. Ask your developer to add these little helpful tools before making your website go live on the World Wide

8. Avoid Flash or Javascript

Flash and Java are compatible with Android and won’t function on any of the Apple devices. So, ensure that you avoid using them for your mobile site. As Apple’s iPhone and iPad make up 30% of the smart device market, a significant portion of your target audience won’t be able to access your content because of the abovementioned techs.

Once the redirects are in place, any mobile user who types in your web address or clicks any of your links in the search engine will be sent to the mobile-optimized version of your site.

9. Keep the same branding elements

A mobile site is just a compact version of the original desktop-based portal. So, you should incorporate all the branding elements (small and big) in both versions. Well, this is important for two reasons.

A mobile site is a brand touchpoint, and just like any other property, it should reflect & promote the brand essence. If people are already aware of your company and its products, you need to make them feel like they are visiting an old friend, which is an essential consideration for loyal customers.

10. Keep the same information

The first step in building a mobile site is determining the content you want to include. Due to restricted screen space, you must figure out what information your readers or visitors would seek. Make sure you provide them with accurate information. Also, check that the full content is interlinked and that there’s a smooth transition from one link to another.

11. Properly utilize white space

Most web owners try to fit in as much information as possible. But it’s wrong. Creating a clumsy site will degrade the user experience. Try to add some white space in and around the content. It will give a sophisticated appearance and ensure that users can click the button they aim to reach.

12. Add a toggle option

A common mistake that website designers make is spending a great deal of time crafting a site that works perfectly on a mobile device – without giving users the option of switching back to the desktop version of the website. You never know what the viewer will prefer, so it’s best to cover all your options.

Don’t focus entirely on making a website mobile-friendly. Try to bring your customers to a desktop version as well. Make sure people see and love it. It’s good to pare down the content, but millions of users still like to browse desktop-based sites. To do so, you need to include some essential links so that users can be directed to a desktop version of the website.

13. Minimum text entry

Several users find it a bit difficult to use the smartphone keyboard. If possible, use drop-down menus, checklists, and pre-populated fields as the means of data entry. This reduces the challenges faced by the users while typing with the smartphone keyboard.

Summing Up

By implementing these various tips, you will be able to create a mobile-friendly website that can easily ride the latest trends, retain an existing readership, and entice new ones without getting left behind. It’s impossible to predict what all platforms will look like, but you’ll stay ahead of the curve by making your site as versatile as possible.

Making websites mobile-friendly is not a new concept in the web sphere, so designing and building them can be challenging. However, mobile portals do have great potential and will bring more customers to your business.

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