Mobile-Friendliness Is Now A Factor
Mobile friendliness actually recently became a factor in Google’s algorithm. This factor only affects the search results displayed on mobile devices. Once again, I’ve posted excerpts from 2 articles below as this topic was covered on this site’s blog.
1. If you have a WordPress website with an unresponsive theme, consider using WPTouch
One of my client’s websites uses an unresponsive WordPress theme, so after I reviewed my client’s Google Analytics and noticed that 10% of her traffic was coming for a mobile device, I quickly installed the WPTouch plugin. WPTouch is a free plugin that allows you to create a mobile optimized version of your website.
2. Keep It Simple
When your working on your sites mobile optimization, try not to put too much clutter on the screen. Mobile users tend to like a nice and clean website where they aren’t inundated by 100 different things to click and annoying pop-ups. Speaking of pop-ups…
3. Don’t Use Pop-Ups
In addition to being annoying, pop-ups are usually very difficult to close on a mobile device. For users with larger fingers, closing a pop-up ad usually results in them accidentally clicking the ad and being redirected to the site when they weren’t interested in it. Sure, this could increase your click-through rate (CTR), but it won’t matter if it doesn’t result in a conversion.
4. Try To Keep The Mobile Design Similar To The Desktop Design
This has less to do with mobile optimization and more to do with bounce rate, but it is something to consider. While it isn’t always necessary, although if you have many returning visitors, it might be a good idea to keep the design similar so that your visitors feel like they’re in a familiar environment.
5. Make It Large
Since Mobile Screen are smaller than desktop screens, it’s a good idea to make elements on the website (text, images, etcetera) large enough to be clicked on and seen.
6. Test Your Website’s Mobile-Friendliness With The Mobile Friendly Test Tool
Google has released a mobile-friendly test tool for you to test your websites, so why not use it? If you’re wondering about how effective the tool is, I have an article titled, “Test Your Website With The Mobile Friendly Test Tool”, where I test a few the tool using a few websites.
Google also has a tool you can use to determine if your site is mobile friendly or not. The effectiveness of this tool is discussed below.
How Effective Is The Mobile Friendly Test Tool?
In case you’re wondering how effective the mobile friendly test tool is at determine the mobile-friendliness of a website, I went ahead and tested 4 different WordPress websites that I own or currently work on: websites A, B, C, and D.
- Website A is an established website that has a desktop and mobile version.
- Website B is an established website has a desktop version but no mobile version
- Website C is a new website that has a desktop and mobile version.
- Website D is a new website has a desktop version but no mobile version
The results for each website were as follows:
- Website A passed the test and was deemed to be mobile friendly.
- Website B did not pass the test and received the following error: Content wider than screen.
- Website C passed the test and was deemed to be mobile friendly.
- Website D managed to pass the test despite not having a dedicated mobile version.