It’s time to jump on the bandwagon and do what all of your competitors are doing. The one thing you’ve been doing wrong with your site is not optimizing it for mobile devices. With over 50% of web traffic coming from smartphones, it’s imperative that you take this into consideration when designing a website or updating an old site.
Now, if you’re not sure where to start, ask yourself these four questions:
1) What type of content am I displaying?
2) How can I make navigation easier?
3) What will happen if my visitors don’t have access to Wi-Fi or a fast data connection?
4) What are mobile users searching for?
Let’s break down each question.
What type of content am I displaying?
This is a pretty broad question, so let’s get specific. Let’s say you have a mobile website for your restaurant. First, make sure to check your analytics – do most of your mobile web visitors arrive with tablets or smartphones? If not, then tablet and smartphone compatibility is not necessary. If mobile visitors mostly arrive with smartphones, then you will want to consider how they use the mobile web.
Do most mobile users search for specific information? Or do mobile users typically browse your content? If mobile users are browsing your content, then you should create a smaller version of each page that is designed specifically for mobile screens. This would provide a better user experience because mobile devices have less screen real estate than desktop monitors.
If the majority of mobile visitors are visiting your site via search engines, then just include keywords in the title and meta tags that relate to the restaurant industry. These three questions might also be useful as well as: Is my business simply a brick-and-mortar store or am I selling products too? In either situation, mobile compatibility is key. If mobile users are looking for a product or service that your business offers, how can you ensure they find it?
Is my site automatically mobile compatible just because it’s responsive? For most sites, yes. In some cases where there is a lot of content on the page and each piece of content requires a different style sheet for mobile devices, then mobile compatibility might require a little more work.
2) How can I make navigation easier?
Having a mobile site does not mean you have to completely overhaul your current website design – all you need to do is take into consideration how mobile visitors use your website and adjust accordingly. Most smartphone browsers will open links in the same browser window; this means that any mobile navigation should be at the top or bottom of the screen. If mobile visitors are looking for specific information, then that information needs to be easily accessible just like it is on your desktop version of the site.
3) What will happen if my visitors don’t have access to Wi-Fi or a fast data connection?
This question is all about mobile broadband speeds on mobile devices. The average mobile website load time in the US is 8 seconds on 3G, but only 4 seconds on LTE networks. This means that mobile users expect sites to load quickly and mobile optimization of your site can make a huge difference in your mobile web rankings. On the other hand, it’s important not to sacrifice too much quality for faster mobile load times because mobile users will quickly get frustrated with a slow loading mobile web experience.
Basically, what you need to do is test your mobile web design on lots of different smartphones different carriers and look at how mobile users are using your mobile website. The mobile web is constantly changing so it’s important to review mobile website analytics regularly to see how mobile visitor habits have changed.
Make sure you mobile site has great content and has mobile compatibility (see questions 1 and 2). To ensure mobile users can load web pages quickly even with slow mobile connections, keep the number of redirects, DNS lookups, and request timeouts low; speed up how quickly images load; use gzip compression whenever possible; minimize HTTP requests; reduce server response time by putting static resources closer to mobile users (ex: CDN); and finally, optimize mobile pages for mobile screens.
If mobile visitors can’t access your site via Wi-Fi or fast data connection, they probably won’t stick around to eat at your restaurant (or buy anything from your store). Make sure accessibility is a priority on mobile sites. However, do not forget about the desktop site either; mobile compatibility should never take away from desktop users!
4) What are mobile users searching for?
One mobile SEO trend that you should keep in mind is mobile users searching for different things than desktop users. For example, mobile web searchers tend to search for local mobile content, mobile coupons, mobile discounts, mobile features, and mobile menus.
In general mobile searchers tend to be local mobile searchers looking for mobile deals, mobile coupons, mobile discounts and mobile content.
A mobile site can greatly affect your mobile web rankings so it’s important to make mobile optimization a priority when developing mobile website or updating an old one.
Back to you now. Just answer those four questions and then improve your website – simple as that!
If you’re interested in increasing conversions by making your site more responsive for mobile devices, then contact Graticle Design today! Our team can help with any type of design project—from simple updates to full-blown redesigns. No matter where you are in the process, we have what it takes to get you up and running as quickly as possible so that your customers can find what they want no matter their screen size.
Give us a call today (360) 450-3711.
