What does it mean to be mobile-friendly in 2021?

posted by Patrick Chemoul 10/12/2020

As more and more people are browsing the internet on their mobile devices rather than on a desktop computer, creating websites that are mobile-friendly is becoming increasingly important!

A mobile-friendly website is designed to display on a mobile device correctly, ensuring that all content is visible and that the website can be easily navigated.

If you want your website to compete in the highly saturated online marketplace, becoming mobile-friendly is crucial.

In this article, we will discuss:

What it means to be mobile friendly

Most simply, creating a website that is mobile-friendly means that your website is easy to navigate and provides an overall good user experience for those visiting it on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets.

Additionally, being mobile-friendly means that your website works just as well on a mobile device as it would on a desktop computer, meaning your content is easy to read and loads quickly.

This can be achieved by implementing AMP, or accelerated mobile pages.

With AMP, your web page will load faster and will be included in Google’s SERPs, above other search results.

This is because Google has officially integrated AMP into mobile search.

So, whether it means integrating AMP or making your website easy to navigate on all devices, mobile-friendliness means enhancing your website’s usability!

Why Being Mobile-Friendly is Important

There are many reasons why being mobile-friendly is important, especially as more and more people are using their phones to browse the internet, conduct business and search for important information.

As previously mentioned, being mobile-friendly improves the experiences of users visiting your website. This will not only improve the credibility of your business but will also create loyal customers that are more likely to convert.

For the reasons mentioned above, being mobile-friendly also helps increase search engine optimization (SEO).

This is because if users are enjoying your website and are able to easily find the information they need, they will be less likely to click off the site. This is called bounce rate.

The lower a website’s bounce rate, the better its SEO because lower bounce rates signal to Google that the website is good quality and is serving the needs of users.

As we know, the better SEO your website has, the more likely it will be discovered by users providing you with more leads!

How to become mobile-friendly

There are many ways to improve the user-friendliness of your website. In this article, we are just going to name a few.

However, if you would like to know more tips about improving user-friendliness, check out our other article.

First, create a Schema Markup, which is data that provides search engines, like Google, with the information they need to understand your content.

Additionally, creating a schema markup will ensure you gain more exposure by answering user-specific questions.

Second, always compressed added images.

It is important to add images for dynamic web content that is engaging. However, high-quality images take up a lot of space, increasing the time it takes for a page to load on a mobile device.

To ensure that your website loads quickly and users stay on your website, compress the images on your web page.

Third, ensure that your web design is responsive. Responsive HTML adjusts according to the orientation and screen size of the device on which the content is being viewed.

With a responsive design, text and images change from a three-column layout to one that fits your device’s screen perfectly.

With a responsive web design, every single character and image on your web page will be displayed perfectly, providing a better user experience.

How to test whether your website is mobile-friendly

There are a number of free Google tools available that test whether your website is mobile-friendly.

For example, Google Search Console provides a mobile-friendly test tool so that you can easily check if your website is optimized for mobile search.

Test how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device.

Additionally, you can use Google’s repository of information that explains in detail how you can optimize your website for mobile search.

Because Google’s information is sorted by platform, no matter what CMS you’re using, you can find ways to optimize your site for mobile devices.

Finally, you can use Google Analytics to determine how your website is performing.

Google Analytics has now been updated to include more information about the performance of your mobile site specifically.

To access these analytics, click on Mobile>Devices which will give you a report about the various mobile devices that are accessing your site.

SEO is often about beating out the competition. Therefore, it is important to see how your mobile site speed ranks compared to other top brands so that you can provide a faster, more frictionless mobile experience.

Conclusion

With mobile devices becoming the prominent way many people use the internet, improving your site’s mobile experience is crucial to have a competitive advantage.

First and foremost, determine how your website is performing by running some tests on it to ensure it fulfills the mobile-friendly criteria.

Don't worry! There are many web development techniques that ensure your website will be mobile friendly and we will help you implement them.

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