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8 Tips for Making Your Custom Web Designs Mobile Friendly

March 13, 2023

A decade ago, few would have thought about the significance of smartphones. Today, a smartphone is no longer just a phone. It is a way of living, communicating, shopping, ordering food, and finding answers to our questions. Most users now depend on the usability of smartphones. Wise businesses are developing or upgrading their Web site to provide a smooth, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly experience.

Creating a mobile-friendly Web site is the fastest way to elevate your search-engine ranking and kick-start your business’s online presence. By the end of 2025, the number of users accessing the Internet via a mobile phone will be close to 3 billion. And I expect this number to continue to grow. If you’re reading this article, you are probably aware of the importance of having a mobile-friendly Web site and want to learn more.

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What Precisely Is a Mobile-Friendly Web Site?

If a Web site needs to be more mobile-friendly, the business that owns it must create a different version of the site that gives smartphone users a better or even a magnified experience. A custom Web-site design that is admirably mobile friendly is one whose entire user interface was designed and constructed to be mobile friendly.

Ways to Create a Mobile-Friendly Web Site

There are several important approaches to creating a mobile-friendly app, as follows:

  • Create a responsive design whose layout adjusts to different screen sizes.
  • Implement dynamic serving of different HTML or CSS files depending on the user agent accessing the site.
  • Create a separate mobile app.

8 Tips to Make Your Web Site Mobile Friendly

Here are some tips that can help you to create a mobile-friendly Web site.

1. Choose a mobile-friendly theme or template.

Use a theme or a template that was created with the intention of its being mobile friendly. Otherwise, you might need to redesign your Web site from scratch. This is the first thing most professional Web-site designers should keep in mind. Do research online to discover the best mobile-friendly themes and templates. Many popular Web-site builders offer mobile-friendly design templates and themes, including WordPress, Wix, ThemeForest, Squarespace, and many others.

2. Ensure that your mobile Web site is fast.

Speed is a massive factor in making a Web site mobile friendly. When you’re designing a custom Web site for maximal business impact, speed must naturally be an integral part of your design. People now expect to browse a speedy Web site effortlessly. When Web pages are slow to load, this negatively impacts the site’s overall performance.

According to one study by Forrester Consulting, almost 47% of visitors abandon a Web site if a page takes more than three seconds to load. Big brands and enterprises alike know the value of their Web site and the importance of its speed, which is why they ensure that their Web site is high performing.

How to Improve a Web Site’s Loading Speed?

There are several approaches you can take to improve a site’s loading speed, as follows:

  • Conduct frequent Web-site speed tests. Many platforms can test a Web site’s speed in seconds. For example, Google offers this capability.
  • Use a content-delivery network (CDN). CDNs boost a Web site’s speed by clearing out its cache in multiple locations globally. Relying on a CDN can decrease page-load times massively.
  • Optimize Web-site images. Images that organizations publish on Web sites comprise the most significant percentage of Internet traffic and can be many gigabytes in size. Fortunately, we can reduce image load times through image optimization. Optimizing an image typically involves compressing the files and reducing their resolution and dimensions.

3. Create powerful calls to action (CTAs).

A call to action, or CTA, prompts users to take a specific action. Most CTAs are imperatives that urge users to Buy Today, buy before our sale ends, or Call Now. CTAs usually take the form of buttons or hyperlinks, as Figure 1 shows.

Place the CTAs in your Web design in a strategic manner, to guide visitors to take specific actions and achieve their expected outcomes. Make sure the number of CTAs on each page is manageable. Presenting multiple CTAs on every page that users browse can be irritating or even overwhelming to them .

Figure 1—A call to action
A call to action

Components of a Compelling CTA

Some valuable tips for creating effective CTAs on your Web site include the following:

  • excellent graphic design
  • effective placement
  • highlighting the benefits of taking an action
  • imperative text
  • short, crisp labels

4. Design an error-free, easy-to-use navigation system.

Easy-to-use navigation is one of the most desirable elements of a Web site. Whenever and wherever users land on your Web site, they should be able to understand your Web site’s structure within the first few seconds and take action without much thought.

For instance, in scenarios in which consumers visit your Web site to buy a particular product, they know what they are searching for. Avoid overwhelming them with unnecessary product suggestions, CTAs, and newsletter subscriptions that would distract them from their goal.

5. Avoid creating unnecessary pop-ups.

As Figure 2 shows, closing multiple pop-ups can be challenging on a mobile device. It is actually best to avoid them altogether. Pop-ups could cover the entire screen, which would be highly frustrating to mobile users.

Figure 2—An overwhelming number of pop-ups
An overwhelming number of pop-ups

6. Use only legible fonts.

Fonts that are easy to read make your Web site user friendly and easier to navigate. It is important to use only fonts that people can easily read and understand. This means avoiding smaller font sizes and using legible fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica, and Calibri.

7. Do not use Flash.

Flash makes Web sites’ performance slower, which you absolutely want to avoid. Flash usage can reduce a site’s ability to load quickly. It also takes a toll on search-engine optimization (SEO), thereby disrupting the user experience. It is recommended that you use HTML5 and CSS instead to ensure that your Web site is both responsive and mobile friendly.

8. Update the content carefully.

Ensure that the content you publish is readable and is written in layman’s terms. Plus, it is crucial that you craft content to tailor it to your Web site’s layout. Create content-design guidelines. Otherwise, the frequent updating of your content can hamper consistent Web design. Content is the key to keeping your audience hooked. If you do not place your content appropriately, users might decide to skip browsing your Web site altogether.

Conclusion

Are you ready to embrace mobile-friendly Web-site design? In today’s world, mobile-friendly design is a must for any business’s Web site. By following the tips that I’ve provided in this article, you can achieve this goal. 

Creative Content Executive at UIUXDen

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Prabhjot SinghPrabhjot enjoys writing about current design trends and new technologies. His ability to blend words to convey the most information in the fewest possible words enables him to produce impactful, relevant, practical content for all kinds of readers. Prabhjot holds an MBA in Retail Management from Panjab University.  Read More

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