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June 02, 2023

Mobile Web Design: What You Need to Know

best practices for smaller screen website design

According to recent trends and statistics, it is not enough for businesses to just have a website. Since people spend increasing numbers of hours on mobile devices, there has to be a significant demand for mobile-friendly responsive websites.

Mobile website design is important as these websites serve their visitors best. In this article, you can learn about a specific approach when creating a mobile-friendly website.

What is a mobile-friendly website design?

People will more likely look for information while on the go and there has been an increased demand for website visitors browsing through mobile devices.

A mobile-first or responsive web design makes the user experience easier to navigate and find what they need on a particular mobile site.

What is the ultimate goal of responsive web design?

In this fast-paced world, users may become frustrated when finding the information quickly and not being able to do so.

The entire idea behind responsive web design is to make websites user-friendly, easy to navigate, fast loading, and provide informative content.

Nowadays, mobile-friendly websites are a must for retailers as more and more people are looking to make purchases online.

Best practices for mobile web design

Keep it simple on mobile devices

Simplicity is the most important part of mobile website design. It is crucial to create content that is fast to load and doesn’t demand much screen space on mobile devices.

For mobile website design, reduce the number of landscape images as these are not that useful for mobile sites and can significantly decrease loading speed.

Keep in mind that mobile users have an entirely different approach to mobile websites on mobile devices than desktop users. Also, reduce forms that users have to fill out. These can be difficult to fill out, especially on mobile devices. If there has to be an online form, make sure the fields are limited, giving space to only necessary information.

The hamburger menu is a great addition to any responsive website as it doesn’t take as much space, it looks simple and modern and it’s user-friendly. In addition to the hamburger menu, a search feature is also something to consider simplifying for mobile view best practices.

Make it easy to navigate

There is simply not enough website space for all the relevant information, so always focus on the most important on mobile websites.

No matter what your area of expertise is, make sure you don’t turn off potential customers with never-ending menus or navigation buttons.

Following one of the best practices, focus on your key products and services making it easier for customers to find quickly what they are looking for.

Make it easy for visitors to get in touch with you. Always provide several contact options such as phone number, email address, and company address. These have to be accessible from different landing pages part of your website.

best practices for mobile visitors

Create a call to action

Create a visually stimulating call to action that will look appealing to visitors. That is, even more, important for mobile website design.

Unlike desktop users, mobile users already have an idea of what they are looking for and mainly just need to get in touch with you. To get the most from this addition, make sure to place a call to action button at the prominently visible place.

It has to be straightforward so that visitors know what they will receive from you/your business if they respond to a call to action. Make it short, understandable, and compelling.

Avoid duplicate content

For the mobile website design process, when you prioritize a mobile-friendly website and a mobile version of a web page, you must keep in mind a duplicate content issue.

Content is extremely related to SEO and how Google will position your site so you should pay attention to your site’s content and UX overall.

On the website, it’s easy to accidentally create the version of your web page or the whole website. It also is easy to create some paragraphs that are the same throughout the site.

All of this is called duplicate content and your site could easily get penalized by Google. especially when it comes to creating two sites – mobile and desktop websites – these “accidents” happen.

However, it’s always recommended to have a professional company assist so you can have a piece of mind knowing everything is set up properly.

More about duplicate content

To write a few lines more about duplicate content, we can certainly speak from our expertise. Content that has been copied from its original source and used on other websites is referred to as duplicate content.

Also, duplicate content can appear on various websites or domains and while it can occur intentionally, it can also significantly manipulate search engines like Google or others. Google can easily penalize websites that are sharing the same content.

Google will only choose the one website that is sharing relevant information that applies to one version of the content.

The SEO implications of duplicate content are significant. Duplicate content may lower search engine rankings reducing organic traffic. It can also impact user experience and confuse users who are looking to read different pages but get surprised by the same content. This impacts the negative perception of a user and the website’s credibility.

The duplicate content issues can be addressed and by proactively managing and addressing duplicate content, website owners can improve their SEO performance, enhance user experience, and maintain a stronger online presence.

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Benefits of a responsive web design and mobile-friendly website

Improved visibility

Responsive web design allows users to easily navigate on smaller screens as users don’t have to manually zoom like before, and the whole content can be visible within the full width of the mobile screen.

Font sizes are usually adjusted nicely for the specific screen size, and nevertheless, for different devices, responsive images display properly.

Improved page speed

Page speed is another factor to consider when it comes to SEO as a good page speed positively impacts your site’s rankings on Google.

Users need to be able to find information faster and this is where the web loading speed comes in.

Also, how quickly your website loads can break the site and this is something that will make your visitors and potential customers bounce back and perhaps they will never again come back to your site.

Google ranks websites

Google announced how it would start using mobile-friendly websites as a significant factor in search engines.

Google recognizes the need for a quality mobile experience and wants web pages to load instantaneously, no matter what type of device a visitor is using. Also, with adequate mobile website design, it is more efficient for Google bots to crawl which means that your website is indexed quicker.

Besides, users don’t want to be limited while searching the internet on their mobile devices. Mobile website design offers a choice for browsing according to their preferences.

Make sure to upgrade your website to not only a desktop but a mobile-friendly version, as well. Google honors responsive web design as a pattern for all website design processes.

More shares on social media

As we all know social media is very impactful and even though social shares won’t impact your rankings on Google as much, it will help you grow the network.

Ensure your site is sending the right message to people about your products or services or anything you are looking to offer. More social and web traffic means more visits to your site, a mobile-friendly website, and mobile app users in particular.

More purchases on mobile responsive website

If you own an e-commerce website, you should pay more attention to responsive web design. Your desktop website should have a mobile version with the same website layout for smaller screen sizes.

The visual hierarchy of the site should be consistent meaning all the pages should follow the same layout on multiple devices.

Websites such as Zara or other retailers provide an impeccable user experience no matter if it’s a mobile device (mobile screen) or mobile apps in question.

Visual Content Best Practices

Why should you invest in responsive design?

Ease of management

Whether you are a small business owner or an enterprise, the importance of a mobile website should be a priority. Most businesses lack time to update and refresh their website and this includes website design, functionality, web loading speed updates, and more.

The website and mobile design world is complex and includes not only that very first design layout, but it covers the user experience, speed, functionality, and other factors of not only mobile website design but website design in general.

Responsive web design made it easier to manage a business website with its elements related to marketing, for example, it became easy to link the site or a site’s page to social media updates (post).

You’ll never again have to connect to your desktop computer to post something on social media. Having a mobile responsive website it became easier and faster to share an update on social. With just a few easy clicks your update will be live and visible to your followers and the online world.

Additionally, with just one website, other elements of your marketing will be much easier to manage. Responsiveness takes much of the stress out of managing a business website.

SEO is important for mobile website design

SEO, an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization, plays a crucial role in enhancing the online visibility of businesses on search engines like Google. The higher your website ranks in search results, the greater the likelihood of attracting potential customers.

Mobile-friendly website design, also known as responsive design, is closely linked to SEO. Google places a high value on mobile-friendly websites when determining search rankings. By incorporating responsive design alongside other SEO strategies, you can significantly improve your website’s performance in search engine results.

The flexibility of mobile website design

With a fully responsive website, you can have a piece of mind when it comes to making updates and modifications.

With responsive web design changes and updates can be implemented quickly and easily in one place. This convenience empowers website owners to maintain an up-to-date and user-friendly online presence without the hassle of managing multiple versions of their site.

Few Tips and Best Practices on File Size

To conclude

A mobile-friendly website mobile website should be easy to navigate for mobile device users with different screen sizes no matter if it’s a desktop website viewable on desktop computers or it’s made for smaller screens – screen size determines how the website’s layout should look.

If you are interested in learning more about our services, contact us now! Our web development company will help you understand the specifics related to creating mobile-friendly websites and more! For all media queries, you can always call in or get in touch via our chat section.

We learned that responsive web design is a vital aspect of modern web development and web design as it impacts user experience, SEO rankings internet traffic, and overall functionality of the website.

With the responsive website design approach, businesses – whether small or enterprise, can approach a wider audience ensuring the visual content of their website is fully responsive throughout various devices.

These devices include smartphones, tablets, and desktops. When it comes to smartphones, there are many different screen sizes available so the responsive view is adaptable for all.

Moreover, a mobile-friendly site is flexible and allows for more efficient website management since updates can be made in one main location or within one website. With just one website, other elements of your marketing will be much easier to manage. Responsiveness takes much of the stress out of managing a business website.

Responsive design (mobile first) is an important part of any modern web strategy and it should be a part of yours as well. If you still are not convinced about the responsive design advantage of your site, our web design professionals are ready to help. Get in touch today!

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