Web design is distinctly unsexy and I am fine with that. It is geeky and practical with a sprinkling of aesthetics. But considering I love what I do and who I am, even for me the phrase ‘website mobile optimisation’ may be one of the biggest turn-offs in my profession.
It just sounds so dull and to be quite honest despite my elaborate efforts to make you think otherwise – it is. BUT. It is so important.
Recent numbers show that of all website users 50% are using their mobile phones. I’m not one to mislead you so I checked my own website traffic this morning and in the last month, exactly 50% have visited my website on their mobile phones.
So, in this blog post, I am going to explain some quick tips to help you do some website mobile optimisation so you are not putting off potential clients and sales.
Website mobile optimisation – dull but so very important
Any online guide will talk about viewports, plugins and compressing javascript and yes, they all do play a role. BUT. In most circumstances, there are 2 simple things you can do which will make such a huge difference.
1st up is to make sure it looks good
One of the most off-putting things is that text is too large so a website shouts at you or overlaps onto another line. Even worse is if important buttons or contact forms don’t display properly so your visitor can’t click or contact you.
The best tool to use is this free website:
www.responsivedesignchecker.com
Put the homepage address in the bar at the top and then use the controls on the left-hand side to see what your web page looks like on all screen sizes.
This is the easiest bit. The harder and more time-consuming bit is going to each page and making all the adjustments. But do you really want to put off 50% of your potential clients and sales?
I’d recommend starting with your home page – as that is the one which gets the most visitors and makes your first impression. Then your contact page to make sure people can contact you. Then repeat the process for each of the web pages in the priority order of you and your business.
Next up is speed.
A lot of people browsing the web on their mobiles are not on Wi-Fi so a mobile webpage needs to be quick to load.
First up do a speed test for your web page using this free tool:
https://www.uptrends.com/tools/free-mobile-website-speed-test
Remember you don’t have to be perfect just good. Research suggests that we are patient for up to 2 seconds, so aim for anything under that.
Once you know what pages are a bit slow then the next step is to speed them up.
The quickest way to speed up any web page is to look at the images.
First up is the dimensions – if a web image is a full page (like a header) or half a page-wide then ignore them for now. But resize the others, such as any icons or a small profile image of team members, so they are the dimensions they will be shown on the large screens.
Before uploading your newly resized images then compress all your images for your slow webpage so the file size is smaller. As a smaller file is quicker to load.
The maximum is 1MB but the ideal is between 60kb and 200kb.
To reduce your file size then this free tool is perfect:
It compresses your image without affecting the quality and is free for 20 images a day.
After you’ve uploaded all your new images, keep a copy of your old ones on your computer until you know you don’t need them anymore. But delete them from your website.
Then do another speed test and see how much your load time has improved.
If you want to learn a few more tips about website images sizes, then this blog post gives a quick summary: How to manage website image sizes
Summary
Website mobile optimization – summary
- I told you it was un-sexy and a bit dull
- Test the speed of your webpages and address your images sizes on the pages which are a bit slow
- Make sure it is functioning properly and looks good on all the different screen sizes using: https://www.responsivedesignchecker.com/
- Hopefully I’ve emphasized how important it is to your business!
As always, do just get in touch if you have any queries.
Jules
