9 tips to make your website easily accessible via mobile devices

Should in case you missed it, the last algorithm of Google led to “Mobilegeddon,” which penalized any website that lacked mobile-friendly pages by reducing the website’s ranking in mobile search results.

In 2014, the primary device used by people to gain internet access moved from desktop to mobile. which means web designers as well as marketers ought to put mobile users at heart when building a website. The new algorithm of Google advises businesses to put mobile first.

Although, a knowledge gap exist when it comes to building a website that is mobile-friendly. What’s the first thing to do? Unfortunately, a layer of difficulty has been included by the mobile web development space. This inclusion maybe difficult for some business groups. Developing mobile friendly websites go beyond cross-browser; it’s really about cross-platform. Below are 9 tips to assist you to build a website that’s  more mobile-friendly.

 

Tip #1: Don’t make a separate mobile-friendly website

Some times ago, when we use to build websites for “mobile web,” we usually modify content to suit mobile use as well as  argue the parts that are suitable for mobile. Although, we may not be able to control the kind of content our website users want, and we really can’t say that our desktops are fundamentally different from mobile device, that mobile must have separate web space.

As at last time I checked, there’s just one Google, and in as much as Google is already punishing us for repeated content, then possession of two websites—one for mobile device and the other for desktops—with just one content defeats the objective of showing up on search engines of Google. So try not to build another website for mobile.

Tip #2: Make use of responsive design

Responsive design helps developers of website to build a site that can be viewable on diverse sizes of devices. This cuts down the workload of website developers when creating a website.

The responsive design technique uses flexible images, flexible layouts, as well as cascading the stylesheet media requests. When you use responsive design on a website, the web page will detect the screen size of the visitor with the orientation as well as modify the layout accordingly.

Tip #3: Always put viewport meta tag

With the viewport which is a virtual area employed by the browser rendering engine, you can determine the way content is scaled as well as sized. This is why it’s an important code when creating a multi-device enthusiasm. Your website won’t work well on mobile devices without it. So, the viewport meta tag will then tells your browser that the page needs to adjust into the screen. There are lots of diverse settings that you can help to fixthe viewport into control.

Tip #4: Font sizes and button size matters

The font size as well as button sizes are quite important as far as mobile devices are concerned. The font size should not be more than 14px. This may look big, but why not prevent your users from zooming in your content to be able to read, simply adjust your font size for better legibility in oder make it better for them. If you want to use lower fonts which should not go beyond 12px, use it on forms or labels.

In the case of buttons, it gets better with  the bigger the button—it reduces the possibilities of the user hitting the wrong button mistakenly. For example, design guidelines of Apple recommend  that button sizes should not less than 44px by 44px. Making use of these guidelines will assist you to maximize your user’s feeling of satisfaction on their mobile device as well as increase the e-commerce sites conversion.

 

Tip #5: Make use high-resolution pictures

Similar to that on Instagram, hi-res pictures are quite essential on your responsive websites so as to make sure you have a standardized user’s experience. The current versions of iOS devices possess high-definition screens that need an image to double the desktop’s resolution. Possession of extremely high-resolution pictures will help you to prevent having blurry images when seen on a retina-quality screen.

Tip #6: Get rid of the default zoom

Auto-zoom may not be too good for your layout elements, most especially for pictures and content navigation. They may seem small or too large in the layout. To solve this, make use of the viewport meta tag to launch customized variables in the content. Ensure you add this tag in your <head> HTML.

 

Tip #7: Make use of the YouTube videos on your site

If you make use of a lot of videos on your site, there will be a difference in the way your video will appear on mobile and may sometimes be hard. Making use of YouTube videos is a remedy to fight any difficulties in seeing videos on mobile. The reason behind this is that the included code on YouTube is readily responsive. This saves you lots of steps in ensuring that you have mobile-friendly videos.

Tip #8: Don’t restrict the experience of your mobile  users

It doesn’t matter how appealing your mobile website looks, make sure you put a “go to full website” or “view desktop version” option at the base of your website. There, people who still value the full website experience and if that’s true, why constrain their experience? Most especially if that’s their choice. The last thing you want is to lose a new potential client simply because you didn’t give them the opportunity to experience your full website.

Tip #9: Never stop testing

Once you’ve built your responsive site, ensure you test it, over and over again. That means “try it on a mobile device many times;” test it out on an Android, a Windows phone, an Iphone, and different tablets. Test all pages, user action, buttons; also while you’re testing, make sure you put yourself in the shoes of the user, or ask a different person who is not part of the design to test it out for you.

I hope these guides offer you assistance in knowing how to ensure your website becomes more mobile-friendly. If one of the renowned digital marketing trends of 2015 is mobile friendly, then you have no reason for not to setting your business up for great mobile experience.

Your mobile friendliness should not only be limited to your website. Ensure your social media interface is mobile friendly as well.