2017 is the year of the mobile

2017 is the year of the mobile

In 2017 having a mobile website is no longer an option. It is a necessity. Keep reading and we’ll show you how to prepare your website for this.

A mobile website is a must-have in 2017
Even if you already have a mobile-ready website, it is important to check the usability and loading speed on all the mobile devices. The fact that your website can be displayed on mobile devices doesn’t mean that your site is also easy to use or optimized.

Google says that your website will get more page views if is mobile-friendly. If your website is not mobile-friendly, people are more likely to leave your site as soon as they arrive. In addition, people are also going to leave your website if it does not load fast enough.
In the past years, Google ranked web pages based on the desktop version of the site. This is has changed. Google announced that they have released a mobile-first index that is going to rank pages based on the mobile versions.

Mobile optimization checklist

There are some things that you should check to make sure that your website works on mobile devices:

1. Responsive website design

Google recommends to create your website using responsive design to make sure that your web pages work with mobile devices.

Responsive website design makes sure that your web pages “Respond” and adapt to different screen sizes like laptops, tablets and smartphones. The content is always the same but the design changes based on the size of the screen and the device. The design of your website will be slightly different on desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. An easy way to test how your website “Responds” is by changing the width of your web browser window. At Psynapsis.net we create hand-crafted responsive 100% mobile friendly websites for our customers helping them to achieve high-rankings in Google and all the major search engines.

2. High speed = better ranking

The website speed is always important. Even if your website loads fast on a WiFi or ethernet connection, it might be very slow on a mobile network.

The test tool will show you the things that could be improved, for example: eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content, enable compression, optimize images, minify CSS, etc.

If you use WordPress, you can use plugins (cache, etc.) that will fix these things for you. Google recommends a page loading time of 2-3 seconds.

3. Improve the user experience on mobile

Mobile users are goal-oriented. They want to achieve their goal quickly and easily. There shouldn’t be a need to zoom, there shouldn’t be a confusing navigation and the touch elements should be big enough. Google has published design guidelines that might help you. You can find them here.

Here are some things that you can do to make your mobile site easier to use:

• Make calls to action easy to see.
• Keep your website menu short and sweet.
• Provide an easy way to get back to the home page.
• Don’t distract website visitors from the main goal by adding promotions for other items, etc.
• Provide an easy to use site search feature.
• Make the shopping experience as easy as possible.
• Streamline your forms and use the simplest form item for each task.
• Don’t make your visitors pinch to zoom.
• After changing your web pages, let real people test your site.

Psynapsis.net is a Software & Digital Marketing Agency that provides a wide range of services for all size of companies, for more information give us a call now to (808) 728-8464 or click here to contact us