How to make your website mobile-friendly

 In the fast-paced world in which we live in, having a mobile-friendly website isn’t just good practise – it is a prerequisite. Mobile users now expect an experience optimised for their specific device.

With Google getting even more serious about mobile friendliness now is the time to make your website mobile-friendly. Here’s how you can do that:

Before you start any work on your pre-existing website, its essential to establish how your website already stands. You can test your site using  Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. There you will get one of two results:

• Your website is mobile-friendly

This means that you most likely have a mobile plan already in place and have nothing to worry about!

• Your site fails the mobile-friendliness test

More than often the reasons behind this are:

–          Text too small to read

–          Links too close together

–          Mobile viewpoint not set

So, if your website has failed Google mobile-friendly test, move on to the next step.

There are several options to choose from however some options are more favourable than others. Our personal preference is responsive web design. Responsive web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to both the user’s behaviour and environment-based only screen size, platform and orientation.

Whilst this solution is often considered the most elegant option available it may not be your best bet if your site was built pre-iPhone era – it this case it may be easier to set up a mobile site from scratch

Google has a criterion that it follows for your website to be considered mobile friendly, such as the below:

–          Avoid software, uncommon to mobile such as Flash.

–          Use text that is readable without zooming in

–          Size content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally

–          Place links far enough apart from each other

Once you have chosen your solution that best suits your goals and budget, here are a few common mobile optimisation mistakes to avoid:

–          Do not block Javascript, CSS or image files

–          Avoid putting up unplayable content

–          Make sure your page isn’t too slow

–          Check for irrelevant cross-links

So, your website is mobile friendly and meets Google Criteria does this mean you will go the top of the ranking in mobile search engine? Simply NO. You will still need to optimise your mobile site to promote it in mobile search.

In addition to covering the mobile design basics mentioned previously, pay attention to the purely SEO optimisation aspect.

• Mobile Focused Keyword Research

Perhaps you should use slightly different keywords for your mobile site than you use for your desktop site.

• Track organic rankings

Did you know Rank tracker could track organic rankings of your site in major search engines?

So, we have now given you the first steps in optimising your website to mobile design, however, you still need any help then get in touch with the team here at Square Media and we will be happy to help!