Do you know how to optimize content for mobile users? The numbers for mobile users are getting bigger and bigger. As our phones become more advanced and capable of a variety of tasks, the old desktop is getting left behind.
This means that ensuring your website is mobile-friendly no longer cuts it. The needs of mobile users need to be a priority for your site, content, and strategy.
Six things to Consider when Optimizing Content for Mobile Devices
Here we are going to tell you 6 major points to optimize content for mobile users.
1. Tabbed and formatted content
Your web design, or whatever theme you are using on WordPress must allow for tabbed content. If your site is built on WordPress for example, there is a great plugin appropriately named “Tabby Responsive Tabs” that will help you do this.
Formatting your content is just as important. This makes scanning and viewability on small screens much better. When it comes to text, which is possibly the most significant element affected by this, follow these points:
- Paragraphs should be short
- Use plenty of bullet points (exactly like these)
- Use subheaders and break up the text with images
- Have a lot of whitespaces
- Use an easy-to-read font
- If you are using dark font type, ensure it’s on a white background
- Don’t let your font size drop below 12
2. Test your site on a range of mobile devices
Responsive design means that your site works well on any device that accesses it. Have you ensured that this is the case?
You would be surprised how many people don’t. Luckily, good DIY site platforms are built to be responsive. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to test.
Testing means checking everything, from all pages and forms to social media sharing. Basically, you are looking to see if everything works and looks as it should from a mobile device.
Constructive feedback is also a very good thing, so track down friends and family who can test it for you and see what they think about the operation of your site on their devices. It’s easy for us to get caught up in our own things, after all, you know what everything should look like and do, what is the site like for someone who doesn’t?
3. Go as fast as you can
One of the most important things about an online platform is speed. 53 percent of mobile site visitors will give up on a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. Three seconds! Welcome to the short attention spans of the online world.
Unfortunately, mobile landing pages can take a while to load so speed up your site as much as you can, clear out the dragging, long-loading clutter, and beat your competition to the punch, literally.
4. Make life easy for people
The need for speed doesn’t just apply to load times; it also is relevant for crucial information and how quickly a visitor can find it on your site.
It is somewhat safe to assume that there are a few things people are looking for if they are out and about using their mobiles, like locations near them, directions to said locations, and phone numbers. This kind of stuff should be effortless to find (and all phone numbers should link to an immediate call).
Understanding which information is most relevant to the kinds of people searching your site comes down to a proper understanding of your customer, which is a whole other blog.
5. Be succinct
This ties in nicely with some of the tips above and is also an excellent rule for online content in general. Be succinct, mobile users, in particular, are more distracted, so your content needs to trim the fluff and get to the point.
Now, considering Google loves its long form, these two requirements are in somewhat of a tug-of-war, so you can get around this with a summary. A summary that comes first that is. Let a snapshot of your key points be the first thing a user sees, then offer the long-form content to keep Google happy and allow your visitor to really dive in should they so choose.
You can also optimize your content for instant answers which are blocks of content that ideally make it to the top of the search results, aimed and providing information for a specific question.
6. Mix it up with your formats
Sure, the text makes sense, it’s easy to get your message across with it, but being too text-heavy is a turn-off, especially on a mobile device. Where possible use other formats like video, an infographic, or a slideshow.
A video is particularly great as it keeps people on your site. Don’t overdo it, however, this tip, and all of the ones above is about balance. Also, never remain static, try different things, see what works, adapt, and evolve and you will have a website that brings in the business in no time!
Hope you like the article on how to optimize content for mobile devices. Do share it with your friends.
