Mobile internet usage is growing like never before. It is overtaking traditional desktop browsing as more and more people are now using smartphones or tablets to browse information online. This is one of the major reasons most e-commerce sites have created apps for increased sales conversions. If your website isn’t responsive then you should consider making it as 9 out of 10 mobile searches could directly lead to conversion opportunities.
Don’t give your competitors an edge by not having a mobile-friendly design? Let us see the reasons why making your website mobile responsive might be the best way ahead.
Why do you need to make your website mobile friendly?
- Mobile devices – iPhones, iPads and Android devices are extremely popular these days. In fact, Google had released a study that showed more people use mobile devices for search than desktops/laptops combined, from their home! And in 2022, the statistics say that it keeps growing.
Now, do you understand why it’s important to have your website and website landing pages optimized for mobile? Here are some of the stats from Google Analytics:
- Traffic from mobile phones increased by 161% in past year alone.
- 47 million Americans own smartphones. That number will reach 65 million by next year. According to Forrester Research, U.S. mobile ad revenue will reach $2.5 billion by 2021 and 70% increase i.e €40.3 billion in 2022 to Europe.
- 34% of smartphone users search for local information on their handheld devices at least once a week
If you’re still not convinced, then think about this – if your customer can’t read your ads or they need to pinch and zoom constantly to see them, how effective will those ads be? If they don’t like the content of your website because it is not optimized for their phones, what do you think they are going to do? Do you think they are going to come back again? NO! They won’t. And that means lower sales for you. Not a good thing, right?
In order for your business to be effective in today’s digital world, you need a mobile-friendly website, as mobile-optimized websites are the future!
Isn’t it time to get started? Create a mobile-friendly website and start attracting more visitors. Read on for more information.
What Is a Mobile Friendly Website?
Remember, it’s not the phone that makes the website mobile friendly. It’s the other way around – it’s your site which should be optimized for the phone.
A Mobile-friendly website is one that allows your customers to interact with you easily on their phones or tablets, rather than making them frustrated using a small screen by pinching and zooming constantly. So, what does this mean for you? Simply put, if your audience is all over the world, then instead of reaching out to 10 people, 1 million people can view your website! Isn’t that awesome? The possibilities are endless.
If your website is mobile friendly, it will automatically detect the device being used to access your site and will then display it in the most appropriate format for the device (such as smartphones, tablets, etc.).
Mobile responsive sites automatically load all their elements such as logos, text, buttons, navigation, menus, etc. properly by restructuring and resizing elements based on the mobile device whereas non-responsive sites look messy on mobiles as the layout is the same as that of a desktop site.
According to Statista, mobile internet users worldwide have increased by more than 10% in the last 4 years with over 4.32 bn people active as of February 2022. In addition, the mobile phone internet penetration index stands at 62.5% as of January 2022.
Therefore, if your site is not yet mobile friendly, you should focus on making it so.
As a result, there are two types of responsive sites: mobile friendly and non-responsive. But what is a responsive site?
It is possible for a responsive website to work equally well on a desktop, tablet and smartphone, as it automatically adapts the layout, whereas a mobile friendly website is actually a version of the desktop website that has been optimized for smartphones.
Mobile-responsive designs can improve your search engine rankings, user experience, sales, and conversions.
What Does It Mean to Have a Mobile Friendly Website?
In simple words, your website should be adapted to the screen size of the phone or tablet. For example, if someone is using an iPad, they should be able to see all the web pages and elements without having to zoom in and out constantly.
This also applies to other mobile devices such as iPhones and Android phones. Some businesses think that because people use Facebook on their phones, then that site must be mobile-friendly because it uses Flash – no! That is not true at al. Facebook, YouTube and other flash-based sites are not considered mobile-friendly.
So, that brings us to the next question.
What Makes A Website Mobile Friendly?
That’s a really good question! Basically, there are three things that make a website mobile friendly – Size, Structure & Understandable.
- Size – Your site should be small enough to load quickly on all devices. We recommend no more than 1MB for optimal loading time. Most websites can compress their images without sacrificing quality by using image compression software like TinyPNG or similar programs.
- Structure – Your site should be responsive. That means it can adapt to any screen size and “flows” well across devices. Imagine that you are browsing the web on your phone, only to find websites that require you to zoom in just so you can read the text on a page! Crazy right? Structure also refers to how your pages load. Some websites may take longer than others for your new page to load, or perhaps they take forever because there are too many popups!
- Understandable- Your site should be simple to navigate and not have any dead links. Every link on your website should work, or else it will make you look bad. For example, if someone is browsing your website for a service that you don’t provide anymore, then they will see nothing but broken links! Not good right?
What Do I Need to Look for When Deciding on a Mobile Friendly Website?
First, you need to identify your business goals. Next, list out everything that’s involved in achieving these goals and an approximate timeline – this is extremely important! You also need to consider what you want visitors to do once they land on your site.
For example: Do you want them to leave their email address in order for you to contact them? Or, do you want to send them straight to your Facebook page?
Next, collect all of your website content and organize it. I know that sounds like a lot but it’s not as hard as it seems! Lastly, choose the right web design company for your mobile-friendly website.
We hope we helped you with our “three” step process towards having a mobile-friendly website.
Let us now move on to the next aspect of making your site mobile-friendly viz. using a mobile responsive WordPress theme. Here are our top 3 recommended themes!
Recommended Mobile-Responsive WordPress Themes
In order to have a mobile responsive website, you need a theme that is mobile friendly. In this post we will review 3 top themes for your WordPress blog which are mobile responsive.
Before you pick out a new theme I would recommend checking up on what kind of design and layout appeals most to your audience. Try going through the posts here on our site, as well as looking at other successful blogs in your niche. This is a great way to get an idea which designs work best for certain niches, allowing you to emulate them accordingly when designing your site!
Let us now check out the recommended themes:
- Avada – You may have heard of this already but it’s one of those classic WordPress themes that dominates the site and is easy to set up with plenty of options to choose from.Its fully responsive layout automatically adapts according to your users device, making it look great on all screens and devices (computer, tablets, mobile phones) . You can also showcase images that are beautifully displayed on any screen. Avada is a premium theme with 5 stars rating, released by Themeforest Team in 2013 . It was built using HTML5/CSS3 coding with SEO friendly structure for best search engine rankings. The theme includes Visual Composer Plugin (one-click content editor) and Revolution Slider (Swiper Slider). Get Avada here!
- Enfold – A another great option for those looking to have a mobile responsive website is Enfold. This theme was released in 2014 by Kriesi, who is known for making high quality themes. It’s one of the popular WordPress themes and is widely used.Enfold is a premium theme with 5 stars rating, released by YourHead Team in 2014. It was built using HTML5/CSS3 coding with SEO friendly structure for best search engine rankings. The theme includes Visual Composer Plugin (one-click content editor) and Revolution Slider (Swiper Slider). Get Enfold here!
- BeTheme – BeTheme is another option you may want to consider. It is an award winning theme that has been around for quite some time. It boasts an impressive 5 star rating, making it one of the most popular themes on Themeforest. BeTheme is a premium theme, released by jasperthemes Team in 2013. It was built using HTML5/CSS3 coding with SEO friendly structure for best search engine rankings. The theme includes Visual Composer Plugin (one-click content editor) and Revolution Slider (Swiper Slider). Get BeTheme here!
The Costs of Using Mobile Responsive WordPress Themes
All these themes are reasonably priced between $50-$100 depending on the version you choose! Remember that with a mobile responsive theme, you will need to pay for the theme plus a premium WordPress page builder plugin if you choose to use one!
There are some free options out there as well, but from experience I have found most of them lacking in both visual design and features.
We hope that this starter article helped you understand what mobile-friendly website design is, the benefits of making your website mobile-optimize, and how to go about it.
In the final part of this 2 part mobile-friendly website series, we will cover some plugins, mistakes to avoid and tips to help your website be the best one out there.
Until next time!
