These days, having a mobile-friendly website isn’t just a bonus – it’s a must. Why? With more than 50% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, and Google’s mobile-first indexing – meaning the very first website it takes into account for your rankings is your mobile version one – it’s crucial that your WordPress site looks and works great on phones and tablets. (Google)
In short, if your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you risk losing visitors and hurting your SEO. But don’t worry – here are some easy ways you can make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
1. Choose a Responsive WordPress Theme
The easiest place to start is by using a responsive WordPress theme. In short, these types of themes automatically adjust to different screen sizes, so your site looks great whether someone’s viewing it on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop. Plus, most modern WordPress themes are already responsive, so you have plenty of options.
How can you find them? Just head over to the WordPress theme directory, find a design you like, and make sure it’s responsive by testing it yourself!
2. Speed Matters – A Lot
When it comes to mobile and desktop, speed is everything. In fact, 53% of mobile users will leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load! (Google) This makes it crucial to make sure your website is at the top of its game when it comes to load times.
But, how can you make sure your WordPress site is as fast as possible? You can do this by compressing images, enabling mobile caching, and using plugins like WPTouch to improve performance. Just make sure you don’t go overboard with the plugins, as there is a thing as too many WordPress plugins.
Pro-Tip: There are tools like Cloudflare Polish or ShortPixel that can shrink image sizes without reducing quality, making your site faster, easily.
Use Lazy Loading for Faster Load Times
Have you ever noticed that some images on a website only load once you scroll down to that part of the page? That’s called lazy loading, and it’s a great way to make sure your website is faster. In essence, it improves your load time because it’s not trying to load everything at once!
So, if your website has a lot of images, lazy loading can make a big difference in performance. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the technical stuff, as there are plugins like a3 Lazy Load make it easy to set this up, helping your site run more smoothly on mobile and desktop.
3. Simplify Navigation for Mobile Users
Using a smaller screen to browse the web can be a little tricky sometimes, especially for those that have trouble seeing in any screen. So, to make sure your website is as user-friendly as possible, keep things simple.
A hamburger menu (those three little lines you see on mobile sites), for example, is a great way to save space and make it easier for visitors to browse your site. You can also organize important sections clearly, and avoid overloading the menu with too many options, as that can not only overwhelm users, but also make it harder for them to quickly find your standout features.
In short, simple navigation makes it easy for users to find what they need, which keeps them on your site longer.
4. Test Your Site’s Mobile Performance
Once you’ve made some changes to your site and are sure everything is top-notch quality, it’s time to see how it performs on mobile – aka, it’s time for testing your website.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test is a great tool for this, because it shows you how your site looks on different devices and points out any issues that might be affecting the mobile experience as a whole, without it being a bigger issue. To sum up, you can use this test to fine-tune your site before launching your mobile-optimized version.
Final Thoughts: Cell Phones For The Win
If you want to keep your visitors happy and improve your search rankings, having a mobile friendly website is the number one step. And, by doing everything we’ve seen today, you’ll create a seamless experience for all users – no matter what device they’re using.
Need some help optimizing your site for mobile? Get in touch with EpicDevs for hand-crafted web development solutions. We are a one stop shop for all your WordPress development and design needs for Boston companies. Contact us today!