Website Design - 15 Oct 2015

5 Ways to Make Your Existing Site Mobile Friendly

If you have not yet upgraded your existing website to be mobile friendly since Google’s big algorithm roll out last April, chances are your website is suffering the consequences.

A big consequence of not adhering to Google’s desire for websites to be mobile friendly is receiving decreased site rankings. Most online businesses cannot afford to not be noticed by potential consumers on mobile Internet, especially with over 60% of online traffic coming from mobile searches. The mobile technology trend is thriving and shows no signs of slowing down in the near future, so if you want to keep your business competitive with others and secure a promising future for growth and prosperity, you need to make your existing site mobile friendly.

Here are 5 ways to upgrade your site for mobile access:

1. Implement Responsive Design

When you think of responsive web design, think flexibility. Implementing responsive design essentially means including flexible layouts, flexible images and cascading style sheets. Using a responsive design approach enables you to capture a wider audience, as it accommodates the population of people using mobile devices to conduct searches.

2. Adjust Sizes for Content and Action Buttons

A key ingredient to enhancing users’ experience on their mobile devices is ensuring to adjust the sizes of fonts for content and action buttons on your site. Mobile users typically prefer viewing websites where they do not need to zoom in to read content, or access action buttons. Aim to increase font size to 14px and beef up button sizes to accommodate users with larger hands.

3. Use Responsively Designed Video

Mobile devices project video differently than what one would see on a desktop and can prove problematic for mobile device users. Fortunately, YouTube videos use code which is responsive, so this can be a time saver in terms of implementing mobile friendly video on your site.

4. Avoid Using Poor Quality Images

Mobile technology consistently improves, particularly in terms of its screen resolution. Avoid using poor quality images which appear grainy or blurry, as it takes away from the quality of user experience. Using high-resolution images is optimal for viewing on mobile devices.

5. Conduct Regular Testing

With the rate at which mobile technology advances, it’s critical to conduct regular, ongoing testing to ensure your mobile friendly website is indeed mobile friendly. Make a point to test on a variety of different mobile devices to confirm that your site functions well and, throughout the testing process, remember to navigate throughout your own site as if you were a potential customer.

Mobile search is increasingly becoming the norm, given the number of users primarily accessing information via mobile devices. Your business site needs to shift in the direction of being mobile friendly, or face costly consequences.