Are you ready to hear a mind-blowing fact about your website? More than half of your site traffic will come from visitors on their phones! Did you know that over 60% of organic search result visits happen on a mobile device? And once people click over to a site, MORE than half will click the back button if the site doesn’t load within the first three seconds. 🤯
So if you have yet to optimize your WordPress site for mobile, you could be missing out on clients and throwing money away! Let’s talk about some mobile optimization best practices you can follow to maintain your site’s design and connect with clients, no matter which device they’re using.
What is mobile optimization?
We’ve all gotten used to using our phones to browse the internet on the go (or on the couch 😉). And you might have noticed that many websites appear slightly differently on your phone than on your computer. What you might NOT know is that for a site to look good and work well on phones, the website designer has to customize page designs for both desktop AND mobile devices.
Mobile optimization is the process of adjusting a website’s content and design to give visitors the best experience possible on mobile devices. The design, layout, and text that you choose for computers might not work out so well on an iPhone, which is why it’s so important to design with mobile in mind.
Which site should I design first, desktop or mobile devices?
I’m a big believer in designing the main desktop site first. That way, I can start with a complete brand design, core functionality, and must-have plugins. Once I’m ready to move on to mobile design, there are five steps I always go through to make the mobile version of a site just as amazing as the desktop version.
Overlay colors and text to ensure visual accessibility
Placing text over an image can add a polished look to full-sized websites and add visual interest to the page. But if you design those parts of your site as one whole image that includes text, the entire image will be scaled down on mobile – and the text could get too small for visitors to read! It’s better to overlay images with one color and then add contrasting text on top, so each element will scale. That way, the text is crystal clear for all readers.
Swap out videos for images
Videos are a great way to catch viewers’ eyes as they scroll your page, but they can slow your mobile loading time to a snail’s pace! I recommend replacing videos with images or gifs to keep everything running smoothly on mobile devices. They’re just as effective at showcasing brand personality without the longer load times.
Change the menus and navigation
For desktop web design, it’s common to have a menu bar at the top of a page to help visitors navigate your site (you can check mine out right up there ⬆️!) However, that same menu becomes teeny tiny and much harder to use when scaled down to mobile size. I like to switch out the full menu for a more streamlined “hamburger”-style menu on mobile. Don’t forget to add a logo to your mobile site header so users can return to the home page quickly!
Font sizing and styling
Ensuring your font sizing and styling are scaling for mobile viewing is one of the most essential parts of mobile optimization! Too many font styles on your site slow down page loading times, putting you at risk of losing visitors. Plus, if you don’t adjust font sizes for mobile, the text will be so tiny that most people won’t be able to read it! Ideally, you’ll narrow down the number of fonts on your site and choose text sizes that can be easily read and clicked on without zooming in.
Double-check mobile performance
Once you’ve made adjustments for mobile optimization, it’s always a good idea to take a closer look at how your site will appear on different devices. I always head over to Responsive Design Checker, which lets you see exactly how your site will appear on virtually any device or screen size.
And that’s a wrap on the five ways I optimize WordPress sites for mobile! Paying a little attention to text overlays, images, navigation, and font choices goes a long way. And remember to double-check everything on a site like Responsive Design Checker before you go live!
If you want clarity and confidence that your WordPress website is mobile-optimized, contact us for a WordPress website audit! We’ll review your website’s design, tech, and mobile readiness and provide an easy-to-understand report so that you can take action with confidence.
