Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that it is necessarily optimized for phones and tablets. Today, if you want to have a chance to be well referenced on search engines, it must be “Responsive” and “Mobile First”. Although this may require a little more design work or adaptation, it is best to follow these 10 reasons before building your site to make sure you make it mobile.
But first, you need to distinguish the difference between Responsive and Mobile First. We give you the definition.
Responsive Site vs Mobile First
Responsive Site: it is a website that automatically adapts to the screen size of any device. It is a feature of a web page and the result of specific web development techniques. This is achieved by deploying media requests that change the default CSS styles and modify the layout.
Mobile First Site: this is a website designed primarily for mobile devices (smartphone or tablets). The basic idea of Mobile First is simplicity and minimalism so that visitors to a site find what they want in a few clicks. Each page of the site should help users to accomplish a task or solve a problem. Ideally, only the most useful pages of a desktop version are kept. If the user is surfing on his mobile, he usually knows that more details can be found on the desktop version of the site and will naturally go and see it if he has an interest in doing so.
Let’s now move on to the reasons that will surely convince you to make your site mobile. Like, everything you need to know about the mobile format.
Reasons to have a Responsive and Mobile First site
1. Google favors Mobile-Friendly sites over those that don’t appear in mobile search results. Google’s successive algorithm changes, beginning in 2015, have changed the way Google displays mobile search results. Mobile-optimized sites rank higher than non-mobile-optimized sites.
2. Everyone uses mobile devices in everyday life. From searching the web to buying high-value items, no industry is immune. The reason? Because it’s fast and easy. Consumers in all industries want to get online and get what they’re looking for fast. If you’re not optimized for mobile, you can’t offer your customers immediate service. And the risk is obvious: the Internet user will go to the competition.
3. Making your site mobile helps you build credibility with your customers, consumers and influencers in your industry. With a mobile-friendly site, anyone who tries to visit your site on a smartphone or tablet will have a fair and appropriate experience. This will encourage them to see you as a reliable and credible resource for information, products and services.
4. Because it becomes an international standard. Many sites are compatible with cell phones and their number is increasing every day. Adapted web design has made mobile optimization simpler and more accessible to everyone. This means that users are beginning to expect this level of functionality to become the norm when they browse on their mobile devices.
5. You can reach more customers, faster. By making your website mobile, you automatically open your customer base to anyone doing a mobile search. Best of all, customers will not have to search for your site or type in the exact URL to find it. They can simply perform a search to find you quickly and easily.
6. You’ll increase your audience. When a customer or prospect accesses your site to find information or search for something you sell, their user experience simply must be unique and great. Since many people use mobile devices to access the web, only a Responsive site can promise to deliver that experience. Satisfied customers will always come back to your site and praise it to those around them. Dissatisfied customers will do the opposite.
7. Because Google says so. And when it says so, it’s better to follow its recommendations. He explained in his own words why mobile is so important. And the main reason he cites is that everyone has a smartphone and uses it constantly to do searches. But we have known that for a long time. You just must apply it if you haven’t already done so.
8. Your site will look good and work well on any device. But only if you use a suitable web design to build or redesign your site. Why take risks when it comes to mobile optimization? With the right design, you can improve your SEO and user experience.
9. Your reputation will benefit and assert itself. Not only online, but also offline. People will always remember a site with a good user experience. But inevitably, they will remember a site with which the experience was disastrous. And they won’t mind letting people know about it on the comments of your site or around them. Reputation is essential and most companies cannot afford this kind of mistakes, digital or otherwise.
10. Your business will be modern and relevant. You may offer the most useful and unique products or services on the market, but if your site’s mobile experience is poor or non-existent, your business will be a digital dinosaur. So why encourage people to seek help elsewhere? On the other hand, mobile sites are contemporary, state-of-the-art, and legitimate. That’s the only way you’ll be able to reach a larger audience.
Sites that are not compatible with cell phones are disappearing from the global digital landscape. Over time, more and more Responsive and Mobile First sites will appear. They will push those that aren’t will push those that aren’t further down the search results page. And your customers will move even further away from you.
Create mobile-friendly content
Now that you understand why it’s so important to make a site mobile, here are five ways to enhance, organize and format your content so that it’s Mobile First and delivers a strong user experience.
60% of the world’s population has a mobile device
EVERYBODY does EVERYTHING with their smartphone today.
Five ways to enhance your mobile content
From simple modifications to complex technical adjustments, today we’re looking at five ways to improve your site’s mobile content and make it as attractive as possible on mobile devices.
Ignoring mobile optimization is not only a bad idea for SEO reasons, but it can also result in your site losing countless sales. But don’t worry, it’s not difficult to make some improvements today.
1. Limit (or eliminate) pop-ups
People who use mobile devices are much more picky than those who use desktop computers. Cell phone users are in a hurry to quickly find what they need on the go. On smartphones, pop-ups can be a huge mistake if they disrupt the user’s navigation. On a desktop, we usually know how to close a window that appears, but this is not always the case on a mobile. Google said in an official statement that these mobile ads, called “interstitial”, will be penalized if they interfere with the user’s experience.
Legally required items, such as age validation pop-ups, will not affect your ranking don’t worry. But annoying interruptions that try to capture an email or sell a product will hurt your SEO. You should avoid covering the main content while the user is on the page.
2. Use percentages for width
If you have a mobile-friendly theme, it’s probably already in place on your site, but it’s good to know or remember it. When you use CSS on a page, you can specify the width of elements such as columns or images based on two things: pixels or a percentage.
For example, if you set the width to 50%, the width will be half the size of the screen that accesses the page. This way, your users won’t have to scroll the page horizontally, which is extremely annoying and even repulsive.
If you choose the pixel solution, the width of the elements will not change depending on the screen size, in which case you may end up with an incorrect size on some devices. You can use the pixel size if you also use media requests.
3. Make your mobile site responsive with queries
Media requests can be used to make your site suitable for mobile devices, but they are not intended for beginners. They are techniques used in CSS coding that allow you to change not only the width, but also the shape of the content and surrounding elements.
Many professional WordPress themes for creating a blog will already have this system built in. However, you can get a little more flexibility if you use this type of query. To break them down a bit more, you can think of these elements as ways to give your site the ability to stretch or shrink depending on the device used to access it. These queries can also be used to change the size of the text. This allows you to customize your mobile experience with a high degree of control.
4. Eliminate distractions
Of course, you want your users to be able to access your content quickly and easily. To achieve this goal, you need to make sure they are not hammered by too many elements at once. This is especially true if those elements load at different speeds, resulting in page skips on mobile devices.
A perfect example of what can happen is the sidebar we are all used to having. In a mobile environment, this element is relegated to the bottom of the page. Media requests can be used to delete items like this when the screen is smaller.
5. Looking ahead
Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) is a project that Google has championed and seems to be the future of mobile content if they have their say. These pages have a specific framework that improves speed and offers a much smoother overall user experience.
You can get similar results with heavy optimizations yes. But this provides an easy and accessible way to make your content super mobile. Future concepts of this type will help you stay ahead of your competitors. Google already displays MPAs in search results.
Redesign as soon as possible
Mobile devices are the preferred way to access online content. That’s why search engines like Google take them into consideration. EVERYTHING, from surfing the web to making major purchases, is done on phones and tablets. So, you don’t want your business to simply be ignored on the net, right? Then make your site mobile!