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Mobile Friendly Websites: Best SEO Practices

Mobile Friendly Websites: Best SEO Practices

Mobile website designs have become an essential part of brands. In our technology-driven world, mobile devices have taken the topmost priority in today’s digital world. 

The majority of web traffic comes through mobile handset users. As a result, many websites now find it necessary to generate mobile-friendly content and formatting to attract more visitors. 

However, it’s more than just attracting mobile users. There are several reasons why mobile-friendly websites are an efficient option for brands. 

With mobile-friendly websites, users can access the information they want from anywhere and anytime in the palm of their hands. 

People have gotten so used to instant access to information that they look for almost anything on their phones. 

Having a brand with no access to mobile device software can be a huge turn-off for most mobile users. In conclusion, Google might list a much lower ranking of your website than it deserves. 

What is a mobile-friendly website?

Mobile Responsive Design Example

Mobile-friendly websites are sites designed to optimise the usage of mobile traffic customers. It creates a website that adapts to the screen size it is viewed on, such as mobile handsets or tablets.

Most website traffic is generated through mobile users, so they dominate desktop computers. The number of mobile users is expected to grow in the coming years. 

Mobile devices are bringing change even in the shopping habits of the users. This isn’t surprising, given that many users prefer to connect through handsets. 

Further, considering the dynamics of mobile usage, Google’s algorithm often prioritises mobile-friendly websites in search results.

To simplify Additionally, Google has decided to switch to mobile-first indexing for all websites. 

The world is gradually becoming mobile-first, so a responsive or mobile-friendly website is essential. 

Thus, mobile devices might affect more than just your digital marketing process. It will modify the entire work environment. 

Nevertheless, brands must also focus on designing mobile websites that load quickly, even on weak-connected cell phones. 

As many users operate mobile-friendly websites on poor internet connections, brands would not want their customers to have such a daunting experience.

How to check if you have a mobile-friendly website

Mobile Friendly Test – Google Search Console

Since its inception, specific factors might be considered when creating a mobile website design. 

Below are the significant points to consider while designing a mobile website.

  • Avoid engaging your website with software not found on mobile devices, such as Flash.
  • Since mobile handsets have comparatively smaller screens than desktops, focus more on the font size—at least 12 pixels on 60% of the website.
  • Have the same content both on desktop and mobile devices. 
  • Enhance your metadata to have identical versions on both desktop and mobile-friendly websites.
  • Work on layouts and content order; ensure it appears similar to the desktop version. 
  • Before publishing your website, ensure it works well on your mobile website as it performs on the desktop. Further, ensure Google does not view animations on mobile websites as layout shifts.
  • Users often operate their cell phone devices using their thumbs. Touchscreen navigation can lead to unwanted link clicks. Ensure your mobile website links and images are not too small or too big to block the path of thumb scrolling on mobile devices.

Lastly, checking whether your website is mobile-friendly will require only a moment with Google's mobile-friendly test tool. Insert the link of your website and click on “test URL.” This tool will evaluate how mobile-friendly your website is and provide a detailed breakdown of improvisation if needed. 

How should a user-friendly mobile website design look?

Businesses have started focusing on creating pleasant mobile website experiences. When it updated the ranking algorithm, Google started looking heavily at mobile-friendly metrics for ranking factors in 2015. 

Google also started indexing mobile sites in march 2018 and has been relying more on mobile-first indexing since 2019. 

This has become crucial for mobile sites as search queries are growing more than on desktops. 

This is only the start; Google will keep setting new standards for mobile-friendly essentials in its following algorithm updates. 

Here, we show examples of 5 companies that nailed the mobile web experience. Their designs will inspire many companies looking forward to designing an SEO friendly and user-friendly mobile website.

Typeform

Typefoprm Mobile Website Design

Typeform has simplified its mobile websites to reduce load times, and they are outstanding in user experience, too. This Spanish online software company makes excellent-looking forms. 

Even their desktop websites are beautifully crafted and designed. The mobile version cannot load complex designs like the desktop, so they removed many of them. 

They are decluttering the site and keeping it simple for a more excellent mobile user experience. Though the mobile version does not have the magnificent style of the desktop version, it is still enough to be taken aback. 

This streamlined approach also incorporates efficient alternatives to complex tools, like Typeform alternatives, ensuring the mobile experience remains user-friendly and functional without overwhelming the user.

The new algorithm update emphasises user experience for ranking, and Typeform came out clean in that condition.

Pixelgrade

Pixelgrade Mobile Friendly Website

The WordPress themes from Pixelgrade are mobile-friendly. The pile theme feature is perfect for WordPress portfolio websites. 

These pile themes provide an interface to showcase your services and previous work without affecting the overall mobile web design

The theme is optimised for mobile devices to efficiently deliver your content’s intended message and not sacrifice the quality of the content at the same time.

Related:  How to Make a Living Blogging

Squaredot

Mobile Website Design Agency Ireland

Squaredot is an agency in Dublin, Ireland, that allows marketers to build their inbound marketing strategies with simple, colourful, and easily navigable accessibility. 

It is probably the best interface where the colour palette, font choices and interactive controls are efficiently balanced. 

The unique thing about Squaredot is the extensive clickable menu that lets you know the organisation’s services with a click. 

Further down the page, you can add clients' success stories, just like any social media account, which are entirely swipeable.

Zappos

Best Ecommerce Mobile Websites

Zappos mobile website is very easily searchable because of its vast inventory. The latest offerings and products are placed on the very first page. 

Zappos is an online vendor for clothes and shoes and is also known for its excellent customer service. 

This emphasises helping users easily search their items on the mobile website to make it super easy for their users. 

They know it is apparent that a user-friendly interface could gain their reliability and authority to rank them higher on the search engine result page.

Best practices for mobile-friendly websites 

Often, brands overlook significant usage of mobile website design. 

Mobile usability is on the rise; brands must embrace mobile-friendly practices to access the Google ranking and conversions list. 

Mobile users dominate 93% of internet browsers. To develop a top-notch mobile website design, brands must practice ways and techniques to improve their users’ mobile-friendly website experiences. 

Below are the best practices and mobile website design techniques for the brands to follow for an effective and efficient website.

1 – Design with mobile-first indexing

The process by which Google predominantly uses mobile version content for indexing and ranking is called Mobile-First Indexing. 

Most website visitors like to see similarities between desktop and mobile versions of websites, such as content, images, themes, and colour, although they expect the structure to differ. 

In addition to that, you can eliminate some tabs while sticking around with six or eight tabs or items for the smaller screens. You can keep navigation simple with the vertically oriented-down functionality. 

2 – Research if new on a mobile-friendly website

Like most brands, if you initially avoided designing mobile-friendly websites, you might want to begin with the research on Mobile-first indexing. 

Changes are daunting but not so impossible. You can start with gathering information using the web analytics tool and UX design tips. 

If ads for revenue are your secondary profit methods, you might consider eliminating them from your mobile website design to keep your website fast and clean. 

Lastly, run a speed test on various website elements and take the elements that take too long to load. 

3 – Keep essential elements align

User Journey Mapping Mobile App Design Cost

Mobile users are more prone to operate their mobile devices using their thumbs than other fingers. 

Designing your website to avoid unwanted clicks is vital, and the thumb-scrolling path is not disturbed. 

Align the elements of your website to put primary interaction on the front and the centre of your mobile-friendly website. 

The positioning of these functional elements will relate directly to the ease of access for your users. 

4 – Enhance and minimise file size

It is incredibly vital to optimise the content and images of your website. Content and image size can oppressively affect the load time on mobile websites. 

Two primary properties that directly affect the website size are the quality and resolution of elements. 

Resize them before publishing them on your website to boost load speed on the mobile website. 

5 – Optimise the forms for the mobile site

Asking too many questions and keeping long-form requirements on your website is an invitation to annoy your mobile users. 

Mobile users tend to bounce away from the website if they have to fill in too much information. It can be frustrating for them to fill out a form after endless form. 

In other words, brands should keep their form-filling process short and sweet. Ensure that relevant questions and the size of the checkboxes are visible and accessible. 

Also, refrain from redirecting mobile users to different pages unless necessary. 

6 – Disable pop-ups

Popup Demo Example

To improve user experience, Google has rolled out page experience update on pop-ups and called them “intrusive interstitials”, one of the page experience signals. 

Pop-ups on the mobile website greatly hinder easy access or see what users have selected on their small mobile screens. 

To combat this, Google reduces the search ranking of websites with pop-ups and imposes penalties on the brand websites. 

On the other hand, If your pop-ups show essential information, you can add them to your content and resize them to a bigger size than the rest. 

7 – Typography 

Unlike desktops, mobile devices have a screen that fits within the palm of the customer’s hand. Words with small fonts are ineligible to the users. 

Thus, the structure of typography differs when it comes to mobile-friendly websites. 

Most experts recommend sticking to one or two font types and sizes on the same page. Use sufficient screen sizes to make words or texts understandable and readable to mobile users.

8 – Test your mobile website

For the final step, regular testing of your mobile-friendly website can always benefit brands. 

Keeping your website up to date with the latest Android, ios, or other software features might, in any event, attract enough traffic. 

With the help of Google’s mobile-friendly test tool, testing your website becomes an effortlessly faster process.  

Wrapping it up

The majority of users depend on mobile devices for their daily internet browsing. 

It has become essential for brands or companies to make their website compatible with mobile devices. 

It is a necessary process for designing mobile-friendly websites. And with various screen sizes of mobile devices, your website must be capable of adjusting to each one of them. 

This article gave our readers insights into mobile-friendly websites and ways of optimising their designs.

Web designers generally overlook these things, leading to a drastic decrease in traffic engagement rates. 

Brands must follow the above factors to streamline mobile user’s experience most effectively. So that customer landing on your website sticks a little longer. 

The more a customer is on your side, the more chances there are of purchasing on mobile-friendly websites.

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Stuart Crawford

Stuart Crawford is an award-winning creative director and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience building memorable and influential brands. As Creative Director at Inkbot Design, a leading branding agency, Stuart oversees all creative projects and ensures each client receives a customised brand strategy and visual identity.

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