Just curious, when was the last time you were on your phone? What were you doing and why were you using it? When you go shopping, do you use your smart phone – what do you use it for?
Keeping that in mind.. now consider your target market, your followers or your consumers? Whether YOU are on your smart phone or not, this isn’t about you, but your consumers and whether THEY are using mobile. Stay with me here….
The numbers speak volumes
Mobile use is increasing, plain and simple. Per a Smart Insights article on internet marketing, adults are spending more and more time online (no news right) but that the amount of time on mobile devices is increasing and as of summer 2015 just took over more of the market share from desktop and laptops. (51% / 42%). Further, search is also found to be the starting point on mobile devices. 90% of consumers use their smartphones while shopping in stores. 60% of consumers use mobile to assist in their purchasing decisions. I could go on and on with various statistics and data but that isn’t the point of this post… though it drives it home.
So what’s the point then?
Mobile is here to stay and you need to be sure that what you do online is mobile friendly. Your website needs to be mobile friendly and if it isn’t, remember that stuff up there in that prior paragraph?… you are missing out on a HUGE amount of potential.
Improve your reach to mobile searchers with a mobile responsive design. Your biz will thank you. Click To TweetBe mobile ready checklist
- Be sure that your website is optimized. Simple
- Work on your title tags and meta descriptions because you’ll want to have the best version of your website showing up in the mobile search engine
- Remember, your consumers are researching, comparing products and such while they are actually in a store
- Desktops show the first 10 organic searches whereas mobile will show less than half of that so it’s even more important for your website to be optimized.
- Be sure that you review all functionality of your site on mobile to be sure that how it looks and displays is easy for consumers to view.
- Don’t forget to check every page because sometimes tables and content might run off the page
- If you have a mobile responsive theme, the navigation should be good to go, but can’t hurt to check through them also.
- The order of how everything shows up on your page can vary based on what type of website you have. I’ve seen some sites that are built on text boxes and drag and drop. These are the worst for mobile sites so you may have to play around with the mobile side of things to have the most important stuff first.
- Headers look great on desktops but when they get reduced for mobile, they sometimes have features that cover others, so be sure that your header looks just as good on mobile devices.
- Hopefully you have your phone number on your website, but make sure that it is clickable so the consumers don’t have to copy and paste or remember what it was to contact you.
Not a huge checklist but just a few things to consider because I’ve run across too many websites that don’t have mobile friendly websites and the consumers must expand the website just to be able to see the text and then decrease the site in order to click through. Do you realize how annoying this is? Don’t tick off your consumers by making them work to get through your website, it just isn’t beneficial. If it were me, I’d be out, done, gone, see ya!
Bottom line:
Don’t piss off your consumers with tiny print, make your website mobile friendly. Click To TweetThis shouldn’t be news to you and if it is, PLEASE get your site updated with a mobile responsive website. Should you have any questions about optimizing your mobile friendly website or getting your non-responsive one caught up, please let me know as I would be happy to help you and your business improve.
~Kristen
Thanks for the website tips! Great things to think about as more users are using mobile devices. Do you have tips on creating meta descriptions? I would love to learn more.
Hey there Brenda, thanks and yes, in the blog you read, if you click on the meta link there was one there… or do a search in the search bar, or click on the SEO category and see what other SEO blogs I wrote. Hope that helps.
Kristen – Thanks for this post and for these reminders. I definitely need to go check the various pages of my website (not just home page) to make sure things are working on mobile. Vickie
You are so welcome Vickie! Glad to remind us all about checking out pages – plugins can usually cause tweaks when they are updated too
A lot of people use tablets and smartphones these days to surf the net, so it would be nice to have your website mobile-friendly, indeed. You made some really good points!
Thanks Elizabeth, so true!
There is nothing worse than a great blog that is not optimized. I frequently check mine.
I’m so glad you do Connie as it’s not just helpful to the consumer to read but the search engines so your consumers can find you!
Absolutely! When I was building websites, I never gave my clients the option of a non-responsive site for the reasons you mention. The biggest problem I see with them is that the logo has to necessarily be small in order to fit on a mobile device. Which looks really funky on a desk/laptop. Don’t forget also: Google flags sites as “mobile friendly.” If your site doesn’t have that notation, expect to be bypassed for companies that do.
Great tip. It’s a good thing I went mobile a long time ago.
Very smart! So many people use phones and tablets to surf the web you have to make sure your site is view-able by these smaller devices!
So true Kate and we surely need to have mobile responsive sites or we will miss out!
Great set of info you have here. I’ll be checking my pages to see how they look/act. I don’t know why it never occurred to me to go past the home page when checking my blog! Not a smart thing!
Thanks Linda, glad to help. We should always be checking out sites.. especially if you have WP, the plugins can change the layout or cause glitches… can’t hurt to take a look on regular basis.
This is pretty interesting. I have not used my mobile for blogging capability.
Wow Alicia, a good majority (recently this year determined) are on their phones, you have to be sure your site is mobile friendly or people will bounce!
I am fairly new to blogging, so many of these issues are new to me. For instance, I never thought about having my phone number being likable. Great advice.
Welcome to blogging then Kelly! Hopefully you reap the rewards of it
Absolutely a useful post and a great reminder. I need to check my web page.
Thanks Victoria.. yes, check yours out!
Great advice. My posts from the last year or so have been great, it’s the older posts from when I first began blogging that don’t seem to look great on mobile. Do you advise going back and changing them or just continuing doing better going forward from now on? Thanks for your help!
I hear you Molly… I have the same issue and I would say yes, go back and clean them up… add pictures if you need to… make sure they are visually friendly… ONLY if you plan to continue to share them. I am going to. 😉
Very good points. I hadn’t started checking the mobile view of my posts until recently. Glad I check now. Occasionally I will see a picture or other item that doesn’t fit well in the mobile view. Thanks for the info!
Yes, so glad you are checking Amy!
We really can’t afford to ignore mobile users because they are fast becoming the majority. What great tips you offer, Kristen. The easiest way is to be sure your theme is mobile responsive, as you said. Well worth having that because it makes your job of checking so much easier.
No we sure can’t Beth – mobile is definitely important. Thank you!
Great tips, Kristen. I had this happen with my blog–mobile users were saying they had to scroll too much! So, we listened to them and fixed this.
Thanks for the validation of how important this is!
I don’t think that scrolling is a bad thing but being sure it is easy to follow, agreed. Thanks Susan!
Great article! I am getting into the 21st century with the help of a coach – & had to go back and check my own website on my iPhone to make sure it was legible/user friendly. It was! I will be talking with my coach TODAY about making sure the site is mobile friendly. Also, I love the down-to-earth way you write. Simply stating “Don’t piss off your consumers … ” just makes good sense!
I’m glad you are catching up Joan! It is so very important and thank you for the compliment on my writing.. I am me… easy and fun to follow. Thanks!
This is such good information, because before I switched website services I had an old website that wasn’t mobile friendly and I felt like I was missing out on so much exposure. Drove me nuts! I’m happy with my new mobile friendly site.
I’m so glad that you switched then Melanie, YAY!
I can’t stand when I go to a site on my phone and it’s super tiny. I made sure mine was mobile ready when I built it. Thanks for the list of things to check on.
YES! I hate that and when they are tiny… I am OUT! Thanks Kris
We recently created our first logo & I thought it was too small. Then I looked at it on mobile & it looked just right. Everything we do has to look just right on mobile. Sometimes text gets cut off on edges of a post but on the whole, we are looking good.
I am glad that you are growing and moving Roz… so proud.
I hear you! I totally agree. Mobile version is the way everything is going. I keep telling clients that have older sites, they need to upgrade but they are just not there yet. Hopefully, soon. Thanks for sharing. I am going to share this with my clients. =)
Yes Sabrina and if you check analytics it will tell you HOW many on your website are coming from mobile.. huge!
You’re always making me think of something I may have missed! (Is that good or bad??? lol) I ran a Facebook ad about a month or so ago, and the FB data showed that ALL (every single one) of the viewers was via mobile!!! AND, mostly Android, not iOS. Admittedly, I was a little surprised. Thankfully our site is mobile responsive, but even recently I noticed that the social share buttons weren’t exactly as I wanted, so it’s definitely good to check.
Making you think Meggie is ALWAYS good! Check your analytics and it will give you more info about devices! 🙂
It still surprises me how many people are doing their lives on mobile, being that personally, all I do is either send messages or talk to people. I find the screens much too small to do business on my IPhone. I understand it is very important to have your site mobile friendly and when we designed my latest site, this was top of mind. I check it from time to time and yet, I can’t imagine anyone reading a blog post on a phone, which is mostly what I am focusing on there. Thanks for the reminder to check my site more often, Kristen, and how important it is to keep it mobile friendly for the millions of people who do their lives that way!
I’m with you. I prefer to look at my computer not on mobile, not a fan of doing everything on my phone. Thanks Bev.
Great advice Kristen! Responsive website design is best for all websites where ranking is an important issue.
So true Trish and thank you!
This is great stuff. I’ve worked on this with my webmaster. It takes time and tweaking and I am grateful she’s go it right. And she used some Google Webmaster tool to test that it is mobile friendly and responsive.
That is great Patricia and GWT is very helpful in getting more information about your website also. Thank you
Last year I switched my WordPress theme to a responsive one. My mobile bounce rate has improved drastically. Definitely recommend!
That’s awesome Stacey. Be sure to check out my blog on bounce rate.. it isn’t all that bad. 😉
I have been reviewing my site for mobile friendliness too. But now sure about the clickable phone number. Not sure how to do that but maybe it happens when optimized. Going to to check that now. Thanks!
That would be in the header or site design Teresa!