Mobile Web Optimisation Strategies

K.I.S.S.

Before we get into the strategy part of this article, I need you to go here and enter your site into the mobile friendly test field…

http://mobilechecker.com.au/

Have you done it? If you could see a mobile-friendly version of your website in the mobile interface then well done to you! This means your website has been indexed by Google across all devices, and your site visitors are very likely having an excellent user experience. If however your website is not mobile friendly then we have a problem. Whether it’s text that’s too small to read, content wider than the screen, links being too close together or even just the mobile viewport  not being set… this means that a huge volume of the traffic coming through to your site are having a bad time when they come visit via a mobile device, whether that’s via organic traffic, paid advertising or referrals.

In a study done in December 2014 by the Australian Government’s ACMA, a staggering, “12 per cent of adult Australians had neither a fixed-line telephone nor fixed internet in their homes, and instead use mobile devices for voice, messaging and internet access. This is a small but growing group of the Australian adult population who are exclusively mobile in their communications at home”. This on its own is a pretty big deal, as this rules out over 1/10th of your potential customers in a single swipe. But then there’s the reality. The overwhelming majority of research is done via mobile, and this trend keeps growing.

So now that I have stressed the importance of a mobile friendly website, what is it that I would ask you to do? Simple. Speak to a web developer as soon as possible. There are a myriad of ways to optimise a site for mobile, whether it is creating a partnered mobile only site, optimising your existing site or building an entirely new site… this is something to discuss with your developer because essentially, the goal here is to future proof your business.

The things that you will need to take into consideration are as follows:

Your Brand/Logo. We have limited space here, and we want to fit quite a few things into the first glance, so it’s vital that whilst it’s clearly visible and at the top of the screen that it doesn’t take up too much space… we need that space for other things.

A simple and clear menu button. There’s a reason why someone’s got to your site, and we want to reinforce from the get go that they will find it here.

Your contact number. You want people to call you? They are on their phone; it’s a perfect match! Having your contact number front and centre is only going to help your cause. You will need to ensure that your number is in text format so that people can click on it though, don’t make the mistake of embedding it into an image!

A clear call to action.  Whether it’s a sale, or a limited time only deal… this is very much industry dependent. Ideally this will be in line with your advertising and SEO strategy, and help reinforce to the user that they have found the right site and need look no further.

Headlines. Short, sharp and sweet with a good hook is the key here. A mobile site needs to get the message of “this is who we are, this is what we do” across to the user straight from away. Chances are the user is using their phone plans precious (and limited) data, so the likelihood of disengaging quickly is incrementally increased on a mobile device.

Here’s the clever part… a reason to scroll down. We want that first impression to include the last 5 things at a glance. We don’t want our sites visitor to leave just yet. What we want is some time to convince them that this is the site for them, so following our aforementioned headline, yes… we want information. This information can be testimonials, brands we have worked with, our guarantees, the list goes on. If we can get people scrolling down on their mobile, we have them engaged. They are learning more about your business, and the more they learn, the more time they are spending on your site, the more likely they are to be developing trust. This information is leading us where? To a conversion!

In essence, the key to a performing mobile website optimisation is simple; prioritising the information on your main site in its order of presentation for mobile, whilst keeping things simple and functional.

If your site isn’t optimised for mobile, why not call our Digital Strategy team here at SponsoredLinX on 1300 859 600, and see what we can do for you?

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