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The Importance of Mobile Optimisation

Mobile Content

 

It’s hard to summarise just how much of an impact digital, social and mobile marketing has had on the business community. What is without doubt though, is that the advent of smartphones has changed:

  • the way in which consumers find places and services
  • how and where they share their experiences and ultimately…
  • where they will spend their time and money

If we look at mobile phone usage alone they say there are more mobile phone subscribers in the world than there are people who own a toothbrush!   Now not all of these will be smartphones but the vast majority are, and never before have had you had the opportunity to interact with potential customers who are carrying a marketing conduit within reach 24/7.

There’s also no doubt that you need to understand and participate in mobile optimisation. Otherwise you will miss shaping and contributing to the decision-making process of those who define the success of your business –  as well as missing out on an opportunity to broaden your marketing strategies.

The fact is that most businesses are likely to need an always on digital presence, while also providing the quick delivery and convenient customer service that today’s consumers expect in this epic Game of Phones 🙂

This is why it has become essential for your website to be responsive and optimised for mobile usage. But what does that actually mean?

What is responsive site?

This is a website which automatically changes its design to make it suitable for navigation both via a desktop PC and a smartphone. Oh and an iPad and a Kindle and other tablets…

You might be surprised to know that this was first introduced in 2010.

If you’re not sure if your website is responsive type your web address into the internet browser of your smartphone. Has the site “shrunk to fit” the smaller screen? Can you read your text without scrolling horizontally? Can you easily find and click on any calls to action or page links? Is it obvious how a potential client or customer can get in touch with you?

Essentially a responsive site is one which has been optimised to take into account your website visitor’s behaviour and their likely environment when they’re using a small touch screen.

Why is Responsive Design Important?

Primarily because it makes your site accessible to your clients and potential clients but also because Google announced that it was switching to “mobile first” indexing in the summer of 2018.

Google used to look at your desktop content to decide how your website should rank but, since more people now access the internet through their mobile devices, it has sensibly decided to favour those websites which work best in terms of mobile optimisation.

Google is always on the side of the user but that does mean that it regularly sets a high bar for us lowly website owners!

By the way did you know that you can find out just how many mobile device users are coming to your site if you have Google Analytics? Select “Audience” then “Mobile” to see the percentage.

You can even drill down to see which devices are being used – that should concentrate the mind!

How do deliver mobile optimisation for my website?

1. Make sure your Website loads quickly.

Research indicates that nearly half of us want a loading speed of less than 40 seconds and 40% of us will leave the website if it takes 3 or more seconds to load.

You can check your website loading speed by making use of Google’s free site speed tool  this gives you:

  • an overview in terms of the download speed of your site
  • allows you to benchmark your site against that of your competitors
  • lets you to see how much more revenue you might gain if you increase the speed of your site
  • and gives you recommended fixes out of a possible list of 21

It will also send you a customised report if you request this.

Two of the main culprits in terms of slowing down your website are photos and videos:

Photos can add more bulk to a page than the rest of the elements combined, so make sure you optimise your pictures via an image editor or an image compression tool such as the free to use picresize  or Optimizilla

Videos are HUGE file sizes, so if you want a lean website it’s better to host them on YouTube or Vimeo with a link to them rather than host them yourself within the website.

2. Focus on User Experience.

  • Is your font so small that it’s difficult to read?
  • Is your content concise and readable given the small screen?
  • Are pop ups blocking the screen and tricky to close?
  • Is it easy to find your contact information?
  • Is it easy to go back and forth on the site in terms of navigation?
  • Are your text links long enough to be easily clickable on a small screen?
  • Are your call to action buttons readable?
  • Are you using Flash? Most mobile users will not be able to see that content!
  • Remind yourself that you’re designing for touch on a screen rather than for mouse use.

Are there any other Benefits to being Mobile Optimised?

Certainly three that I can think of:

  1. If your site has not been optimised for a great customer accessibility and experience they will move on to the sites of your competitors. They’re also unlikely to recommend you.
  2. A mobile optimised site lets you take full advantage of mobile specific features such as “click to call” wherein a would-be customer can touch your phone number on the screen to enable automatic dialling.
  3. It is quick and easy for your mobile visitors to share the interesting content that you have created either through messages, WhatsApp or social media.

Win, win, win 🙂

Looking for inspiration?

The marketing/sales/customers service platform HubSpot has shared 21 of the best examples of mobile website design in this article. This gives clickable links to all the websites mentioned as well as giving a small explanation as to what is so good about each site.

I do hope this post has been helpful.

If you’re looking to optimise for mobile, then please give us a call. We provide a fully comprehensive range of SEO services, including Off Page SEO, On Page SEO, Content Marketing and paid services including PPC and paid social media marketing. We have extensive knowledge of setting up and maintaining healthy blogs for our clients and have a highly experienced team of copywriters on hand. You can trust us to provide new content that’s on brand and linkable to other pages on your site, making the most of your website and ensuring that for you, content is king.

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