Mobile Website Best Practices

Amanda OldhamWebsite Coordinator

Google recently updated how their search engines work• Specifically how they crawl, read and rank mobile

websites

• Google searches every page of your website individually to see if each page is mobile friendly or not

• Does not negatively affect your desktop friendly website

• Mobile friendly websites will rank higher than websites that do not have a strong mobile presence

But why the update?

• Mobile traffic increasing rapidly

• Searches on smartphones more convenient for clients

• Page-level update makes it easier to slowly boost your search ranking

• If your website is not mobile friendly, you are missing out on greatly improving your visibility

What Can You Do to Improve Your Mobile Website?

Focus on Load Times

• How fast a website page loads is very important

• The slower a page loads, the faster your potential client will try the next search result

• Ways to help your load times:• Optimize your images

• Lower file sizes load faster

• Use text everywhere you can• Text loads almost instantly

Wean Yourself Off Flash

• Apple devices have never been fond of Flash

• iOS devices (iPhones) do not support Flash files and they make up half of the smartphone market

• Flash files can slow your load times

Responsive Elements

• Your desktop website does not need to be responsive

• But your mobile website should have responsive elements

• Your mobile pages should easily scale to the display size

• When coding, focus on using percentages, instead of completely defining a set width• For example, use 25%, instead of 250 pixels

Simplify Your Website

• Mobile websites do not need to have every bell and whistle, they need to be able to perform their basic functions• If a potential client is searching on their smartphone, they

probably have one specific goal in mind

• Make it easy for customers to get where they want to go• The less clicks it takes for them to get there, the better

• Focus on the most important functions of your website• At most 3-4 big features easily visible on your home page

Function is Vital

• If your website is mainly a lead generation source, make sure that your quote forms are easy to use on the go

• Shorter quote forms have greater success on mobile websites than longer, more in depth forms• Less fields, easier to fill out, increases chance of completion

• If you focus on customer service, keep service forms short as well. And have click to call phone numbers ready

• Provide easy to click links for payment and claim options

Easy to Use

• Mobiles websites should be easy to use and navigate

• Make all phone numbers “click to call”• Easier for clients to quickly reach out to you

• Space your links and buttons farther apart• Fingers replace mouse cursor on mobile websites• Fingers are larger and have more room for error to hit

their target

Easy to Use

• Minimize the amount of typing your client has to do• Between faulty touch screens and autocorrect, typing on

smartphones can be a pain• Less typing they have to do, the more willing they’ll be to

continue using your website

• All text should be at a legible size• Too big and clients will have to endless scroll to read

everything• Too small and your text will be too hard to see on a tiny

display

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