Having a mobile website isn’t enough

The first impression a potential customer has of your business is increasingly likely to be from their phone or tablet – so how does your business look as a mobile website?

Declining sales in desktops, increasing sales in mobile devices, Google and other leviathans extending their ad market to mobile devices… if your business isn’t mobile friendly make sure you have some justifiable reasons why. 

Unfortunately, purely having a mobilised website or downloadable app isn’t enough. Your mobile presence must cater for essential design considerations.

Here are a few for quick and easy digestion:-

Speed is of the essence

Mobile users want instant information; a slow loading mobile website will encourage early abandonment and also, is not good for your SEO. Optimize everything that will increase loading time.

Navigation!
Make browsing the site easy for the user and not a maze of confusion - give them key navigation buttons at every point. Don’t forget how important a landing page or ‘contact us’ is and with clear, assertive calls to action especially if you are using paid ad campaigns (PPC, adwords etc.).

Don’t forget to link to your full website
Your mobile site or app will be a functionally refined version of your full site but it may happen that mobile visitors want further details and by providing a link, you have made this option readily available in one click.

Touchscreen friendly
Consider mobile user habits; many use their thumbs for pressing links and dropdowns. Ensure buttons and icons are well placed for fingers and thumb pushing alike – nobody likes to be thrown all over the place because the button they thought they were pushing was actually ‘next door’.

Label placement
If you are using forms, it’s generally better for the user to have the text box label on top of the box. It flows better with how the viewer interprets what text is required and where to insert it.

Social Media
To increase your internet presence make sure your users can easily engage socially with your brand. Encourage feedback and engagement not just from your contact form but on all your key pages.

To use pop-ups or not?
Pop-ups are handy for displaying links but often have an unnatural feel to them - they also don’t work on mobile phones. Any reputable software company will remove pop-ups from your mobile website.

There are many other design features that are hugely relevant to mobile sites and which need to cater for the diversity of screen sizes with due consideration to brands and models. 

To really ensure you get the most from your mobile website design and performance, have a chat with one of our expert Consultants, especially if you want to take your business to the next level!

By Christine Kinch.