3 Critical Changes to Mobile-Friendly Web Design You Need Now

Google has officially released it as a fact. Nearly 60% of searches are done on mobile devices over desktop computers. To accommodate this shift in internet interaction, changes have been made to how websites rank in Google searches. It’s important to make sure your website is responsive to avoid a decline in SEO rankings and traffic.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly with responsive features, you are likely already seeing a reduction in rankings and traffic. But there are a few suggestions you need to know to create a modern, mobile-friendly website that conforms to mobile standards.

1. Create SEO-Friendly Call-to-Action Feature

Call to action (CTA) buttons are a critical part of any website. Their job is to influence visitors to complete some sort of action, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a featured product. An effective call-to-action needs to be SEO friendly, easy to tap, and prominently featured on the page.

Creating a CTA button is critical, and it should stand out on the page from all other content to entice visitors to click. Creating a mobile-friendly CTA button should include the following:

  • Bold, striking colors: Your brand colors can sometimes work, but sometimes using something that stands in stark contrast is more effective.
  • Wide: Creating a button the same widths as the text area makes it more striking and easier to tap.
  • Spaced: Make sure there’s space above and below the button to focus attention on the button and nothing else.
  • Keep it Simple: Inspiring, concise language has a higher conversion rate than longer or plain text. Make it inspirational, clear, and unique to your personal brand.

2. Understand UX and Mobile Web Design

Ever try to browse a busy website on your mobile phone? Even if the site is responsive, it can be a pain to find what you’re looking for. Keep UX (user experience) in mind when designing the layout. There’s one easy rule to remember when considering how to lay out the site: Simple is better.

The fewer distractions a website has, the more likely visitors are to continue navigating through. Remember, there’s less screen space to work with, so avoid cramming as much as you can into it. Make blank space a highlight instead of trying to fill it. Newer responsive designs have the navigation menu hidden in a collapsed form so it doesn’t take up so much screen space. This is critical to any mobile-friendly website. Most responsive designs will automatically make this change for tablet and cell phone viewing, vs traditional desktop.

When it comes to forms, mobile devices don’t tend to do well with long form fields. Instead, use the minimalism idea to create a multi-step process to complete the form on different pages. It’s also been revealed that visitors are more likely to bounce if the form looks long and overwhelming on a mobile device.

3. Create Cross-Platform Compatibility

While planning your mobile layout, it’s important to consider logic and aesthetics. Consider how the following will work across the different viewing platforms.

  • Is typography legible? Small fonts or overly-large fonts will hurt UX.

Is navigation fluid? Remember the collapsed menu.

  • Are buttons large and easy to tap? If visitors can’t tap the button, they will bounce.
  • Is blog content titled for easier UX and navigation? Make sure all posts are collapsed to summary and not in full view.
  • Do you have icons in place of words for things like Home, Contact, Newsletter, etc.? Remember, simple is best.
  • Are popups disabled for mobile devices? They may be great at conversion on desktops, but on mobile devices, popups are annoying and often hard to close. Google has also announced that popups on mobile devices will hurt rankings.

Visitors will access your website on different devices with different screen sizes. Make sure your works across all of them. It’s time to prepare for a move from tradition to mobile marketing so your business doesn’t get left behind.