It will come as no surprise to you whatsoever that smartphone usage has done nothing but increase since its conception. This means, that as a business owner with a website, you need to ensure that your site and every single page on it is suitable to by viewed and easily navigated by a smartphone user. If you’re still in need of convincing, Data Reportal revealed that in January 2021, unique mobile phone users equated to a whopping 66.6% of the population, or 5.22 billion people. It’s no secret that the global pandemic forced many to evolve and become more accustomed to modern technology and the wonders of online shopping, but we can’t hide from the incredible scale of the numbers. Merchant Savvy’s report around global mobile ecommerce states that mobile purchases are predicted to be worth a ginormous $3.56 trillion this year, so having a website that’s optimised for mobile users is, well, a complete no brainer.
I don’t know if my website is mobile friendly
The good news is there’s a super-easy way to check if you’re not sure whether your site is mobile friendly or not. Google will run a quick test for you! All you need to do is head to Google’s mobile friendly test page, add your website’s URL and let Google take care of the rest. As a little bonus it will alert you to any loading or usability issues too.
What if my site isn’t mobile friendly?
So, you’ve done the test and it’s not good news. Don’t panic, there’s usually a way to fix it without throwing it all away and starting again! The chances are, the CMS you’re using has a dedicated guide to helping with such issues, but if not, here’s some generalised tips we’ve borrowed from Google that you can follow…
- Update your CMS to ensure you’re running the latest version. By doing this, it may update security software which will allow you to switch to a mobile-friendly site. You’ll want to back up your site first though, don’t make any major changes without doing that first.
- Choose a mobile-friendly theme. Some systems such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal make things nice and easy by offering up some specific mobile-friendly themes, so you can rest assured your site will render perfectly for smartphone users.
Once you’re done, just pop your site back through the mobile friendly checker and hopefully you’re good to go (or at least will have made some significant improvements). If you’ve got to this point and want to know more and dig a bit deeper, here are some of the most common mistakes made when designing a site for mobile.
We’ve mostly focused on responsiveness here – so how your website renders on mobile screens. Aside from the information you’ll get from the Google checker, we’ve also created another blog post which talks you through other elements such as intrusive interstitials and page speed, so you can ensure your website is 100% fit for mobile users.
Looking for some quick wins when it comes to mobile-friendly sites? We have six wins ready and waiting for you.
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