Introduction
It’s no secret that mobile traffic is growing each year. In fact, it’s expected that by 2020, more than 75{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} of all web traffic will be from mobile devices. Mobile optimized websites are crucial for any businesses, but especially for ecommerce companies and retailers who rely on their website as a primary platform to reach customers. Here are some ways you can optimize your site for mobile:
Check your site performance
To get a better idea of how your site is performing, use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights. It will give you an overall score and also show you where there are problems on the page. The tool will give advice on how to improve these areas by providing suggestions for fixes.
The first thing that needs to be checked is the mobile score in order to determine whether or not it is meeting its standards with regards to speed and size (1Gbyte). If this number is too low then there are things such as image compression that can be done in order for it not only meet but exceed expectations set by Google themselves!
If this isn’t enough information then take advantage of other tools such as Webpagetest which provides even more details about what exactly went wrong during testing.
Use responsive designs
Responsive design is the practice of creating a website that will adapt to different devices and screen sizes, so that it looks good on mobile phones (or any other device).
Mobile users are more likely than desktop users to abandon websites if they don’t load quickly or appear messy. Using responsive design ensures your website will look great no matter what kind of device someone is using to access it.
Here’s how you can implement responsive design:
Reduce Page Size
- Use lightweight scripts
- Remove unnecessary content that is not essential to the user’s experience
- Use CSS for styling instead of inline styles or JavaScript
- Use fewer images and place them in an image sprite for faster loading. This can be done with a tool such as [Sprocket](https://github.com/twitter/sprocket) or [SpriteMe](https://spriteme.org/)
Optimize Images
- Use a tool like TinyPNG to compress your images.
- Use the right file type for each image: JPEG for photos, PNG for line drawings and icons, GIF for animations (don’t use animated .GIFs unless you have a reason).
- Reduce the size of your images by downsizing them before uploading them to your website or app; this will make them load faster without any loss of quality in their appearance. This can be done using an image editing software such as Photoshop or GIMP that allows lossless compression (iPhoto/Photos doesn’t allow it).
Use Caching Plugins
If you want to improve the performance of your site, using a caching plugin is one of the best ways to do it. Caching plugins work by storing static versions of your HTML pages and other assets on your server so they don’t have to be generated every time someone visits them. This makes the website load faster because it doesn’t have to generate all those files every time someone visits it.
There are lots of great caching plugins out there–W3 Total Cache is probably one of the most popular (and free!), but there are others as well like WP Super Cache or Hyper Cache Pro
Ensure that all pages are crawlable by search bots
In order to ensure that your website’s pages are crawled by search bots, you need to use the robots.txt file, meta tags and canonical tags.
The robots.txt file is used to control which content on your website is indexed by search engines. You can use it to:
- Specify which pages should be crawled or not crawled by search engines (e.g., “disallow: /blog/”). This will prevent duplicate content from being indexed by Googlebot if it has already been indexed under another URL path such as “/blog”. In addition, this allows you to block parts of your site from being crawled without having any negative impact on user experience because users aren’t seeing those blocked resources anyway!
A mobile optimized website can give you a competitive edge.
There are many benefits to having a mobile optimized website. Here are just a few:
- Mobile optimization is a great way to attract new customers. If your website isn’t accessible on mobile devices, it could be costing you business and revenue. Mobile users are more likely to convert than desktop users because they’re in more of an immediate buying mindset when browsing on their phones or tablets. They may also have less patience for poor design and usability issues that can turn them away from a site altogether!
- Mobile devices are becoming more important every day–and even more so than desktops in some cases. According to Pew Research Center’s 2015 Internet Trends Report, 45{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} percent of Americans own smartphones (up from 35{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} just three years ago), while 24{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} own tablets (up from 17{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c}). In other words: if these statistics don’t convince you that optimizing your site for mobiles is important now then nothing will!
Conclusion
A mobile-optimized website can give you a competitive edge. With more and more people accessing the internet on their phones, it’s crucial to ensure that your site is ready for them. The best way to do this is by following the mobile first strategy and making sure that your site is responsive across all devices–from desktops down to smartphones.
