According to the latest statistics shared by Google, the number of people accessing a website through mobile phones has surpassed those who use the internet via desktop. This is the reason a drastic decrease in desktop traffic has been witnessed within the past few years.

This particular trend is only going to continue and it is predicted that traffic via mobile devices will reach up to 79% of overall web traffic. Studies have shown that people will stop visiting those websites which fail to ensure a smooth and perfect experience when accessed through mobile phones.

This article is meant to deliver comprehensive details about a mobile friendly website. We have tried to gather all the information with reference to this particular topic.

What is a Mobile Friendly Website?

A mobile friendly website is duly compatible with smartphones, iPads, iPhones, and tablets. These sites load quickly and allow access to all the features of a web page. In addition, users can read the text without having any trouble. Since mobile phones have a limited display, mobile friendly websites tackle this issue by providing a hassle-free navigation experience.

Why Must a Website be Mobile Friendly?

The number of mobile phone and smartphone users is surging with each passing day. Therefore, mobile friendly websites are a necessity. People use their smartphones to browse different websites and want to access their features without any trouble.

Visitors prefer mobile friendly websites due to their responsiveness, user-friendly layout and hassle-free access to all features. They avoid web pages which take too long to load and fail to show compatibility with their mobile devices.

Apart from this, Google is utilizing views and mobile search results in order to rank a particular website. In addition, it looks at whether a website is mobile friendly or not and rates it accordingly. You may experience a noticeable decline in traffic if your site is lacking mobile friendly features.

Below are the basic reasons why visitors pay more attention to a mobile friendly website.

Features of a Mobile Friendly Website

Creating a mobile friendly website requires different features depending on your niche and audience. But there are a few basic things that should be taken care of in order to satisfy your mobile audience. If you follow these basic guidelines, your mobile users won’t be disappointed.

1. Minimum load times

A mobile friendly and well-optimized website should be capable of loading pages quickly. Life is on a fast track and people want to complete their tasks without any hassle.

To improve the website load time, you need to optimize the images and keep the overall page size to a minimum. At the end of this article, we have shared some tools to test whether your website is mobile friendly or not. Use these tools and try to decrease the load time as much as possible.

2. No need to use Plug-ins

Desktop platforms may need Java and Flash plug-ins to display their contents. Although Flash and JAVA poor security had created many issues, people kept using them to have dynamically-displayed content. With the advent of HTML5, most mobile devices don’t support these plug-in. Try avoiding these plug-in to ensure the perfect user experience.

3. Readability

The user visiting a mobile friendly website should be able to read the content without having to swipe back and forth. In fact, the mobile audience should be able to simply scroll downwards and read the content. The words shouldn’t be displayed too large or too small.

4. Better link spacing

The small size of a mobile phone screen turns out to be the major hurdle while clicking a link. Poor link spacing results in clicking the wrong link and annoys the user. Google has taken this factor in their ranking algorithm since 2015. A mobile-friendly website must offer perfect link spacing.

WordPress – An Easy Solution to Make a Mobile Friendly Website

Using WordPress is the most effective and easy method to develop a mobile-friendly website. It serves as a universal platform, mainly suggested for websites and blogs. WordPress is referred as the best option for developers, and offers a wide range of custom themes. These themes are compatible with both desktop and mobile devices.

The following steps will guide you as to how you can turn a particular website into a mobile friendly site.

1. Update the WordPress Platform and WordPress Theme

Sometimes, developers don’t pay much attention to updating their WordPress themes and WordPress platform. The updates appear in the shape of notification banners at the admin platform. Make sure to click the link and begin the update process so that your website is always running on the most updated platform.

2. Diagnose

For the sites which are not mobile friendly, you can use various Google tools and get handy tips for analyzing the cause of the trouble. The most common issues include lack of a mobile viewport and small text. Viewers have to adjust the small text by zooming in and it causes inconvenience while using the web page. Therefore, try to use a mobile friendly WordPress theme.

3. Look for a New Theme

In case you can’t get the desired results by removing unwanted plug-ins and updating the platform, the best option is to get a new theme. This will allow you to create a perfect mobile friendly website.

Tools that Help to Create a Mobile Friendly Website

When visitors come to your website, you want them to be able to access all the site’s features in a hassle-free manner. This applies to mobile-friendly website as well.

Discussed below are some of the most effective tools which can help in creating a mobile friendly website.

1.     iWebKit

iWebKit is a free tool to create an iPhone, iPod, and iPad compatible website or application. The tool comes with a free user guide to help you understand it completely. Once you read the guide, it takes only one hour to create a mobile compatible website.

2.     Keynote MiTE

Keynote MiTE is a free tool, which helps to analyze the compatibility of a website with a large variety of mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and iPad.

3.     Google’s – Page Insights

This highly recommended tool tests mobile websites without going into technicalities. It gives relevant information about the display of a web page on mobile or desktop. It also shares advice for making a mobile friendly website.

4.     BrowserStack

This offers screenshots of a website so that one can ascertain the overall appearance of a web page on various mobile devices. The only drawback associated with this tool is the fact that one can take a screenshot by loading a website on every device.

Tools to Test Your Mobile Website

1.     Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Google Mobile-Friendly tends to be a user-friendly and easy to use tool for testing compatibility of a Website on mobile devices. What you have to do is just enter the web page address of your site. After this, Google Mobile-Friendly testing page provides you the complete details regarding your website.

2.     iPad Peek

iPad Peek is a tool which gives authentic analysis regarding the compatibility of a site when visited on an iPad. This can also be done by utilizing a WebKit-based browser like Apple Safari or Google Chrome. By doing so, you can attain the maximum simulation level of a website.

3.     iPhoney

Do you want to check how your website will look on iPhone? Well, iPhoney is the way to go. Although, it is not an emulator, but it helps the developers to make an iPhone friendly website. It allows you to test your website in both portrait and landscape modes. It also helps you in testing your website graphics.

4.     MobiReady

MobiReady is similar to Gomez in various aspects; however, it turns out to be more elaborative than its counterpart. By using this online testing tool, you can perform various tests like Markup test, Page test, and Site test.

After conducting these tests, MobiReady furnishes an extensive list of results page showing the compatibility level of a specific website. MobiReady shows the exact compliance report regarding code checks, HTTP tests, and device emulators. In addition, the comprehensive error report allows you to analyze how your site will respond when accessed through a mobile device.

5 Examples of Mobile Friendly Websites

1. Google Maps

Like any other app offered by Google, Google Maps is accessed by a large number of smartphone users. The mobile website is similar to the app. In fact, it is hard to distinguish between the app and website. This suggests that Google Maps website is highly responsive and easy to use while accessing through a mobile.

2. Evernote

By visiting Evernote via desktop computer, you may observe the clarity of design. The images are added in such a way that it avoids cluttering the page. Moreover, it displays to-the-point value statements. The design pattern is kept intact while browsing this site on a mobile Phone. It is simple, clean, and maintains the overall value of the app. Evernote is in its true form a mobile friendly website.

3. Etsy

This e-commerce website is popular among the masses as a perfect place to sell and buy handmade and vintage products. People visit Etsy for two reasons: either they browse for a particular item or they scroll through various categories of their interest.

The mobile version of this website renders a perfect usability experience for these type of visitors. Soon after landing on this page, you will be provided with all the options including browsing the categories, searching for items or buying the product of your choice.

4. BuzzFeed

This news company website is famous for its popular quizzes and viral content. Most of the visitors find it a good resource for entertainment news. Since it is mostly visited by using a mobile phone, this website is designed to give a much smoother experience while accessing its content on the go.

5. Typeform

The desktop version of this website provides an attractive design and welcomes its visitors with suitable animations, high-definition videos, and various other complex features. However, their mobile website is simple and fast. This is because they have removed most of the animations, videos and hard to load design features.

This minimizes the actual page load time and gives a hassle free browsing experience for the visitors. Although the mobile website is quite simple, the catchy appearance of the page is still intact.

Also published on Medium.