by Gabriel Shaoolian
It’s no secret that mobile devices and mobile users play a critical role in the marketing of your business. Depending on your industry, up to 60% of initial visits to your site can come from a mobile device. In fact, if your site isn’t responsive or mobile friendly, due to Google’s recent algorithm update, your site won’t appear in as mobile optimized in mobile search results. With the importance of a user-friendly mobile website evident, ensure that your website is tailoring its design for mobile users by avoiding these three common mistakes:
1. Lengthy and difficult to read messaging
Messaging should be brief and to the point on your website—never lengthy. Especially on mobile this becomes increasingly important because users are viewing your content on devices that are far smaller than a desktop. Unless it’s a news section or a blog, your messaging should be concise and only take up a few lines. If there is more content of value that you want to offer users, send them to a landing page to read more. However, bombarding users with way too much content on the homepage will immediately seem overwhelming.
While keeping this in mind, the typography and font you use can make a difference if you select it with mobile devices in mind. Use CSS styling for fonts on mobile, and size 16 font as a minimum, so that it’s easy to read. Use bolds and italics to emphasize certain points that are of importance and can be absorbed even if the reader is skimming. Appropriate spacing between lines will also help ease the reading experience for users.
2. Hidden phone numbers
When users are on-the-go and trying to get in contact with someone from your company, the expectation in today’s world is that this process should be instantaneous for users. A click-to-call button on a mobile has become the only acceptable design feature for phone numbers, regardless of your business or industry. If you have a phone number that is merely text or an image, and users can’t immediately call you by clicking on it, the inconvenience that you cause them may end up in a lost sale. Your phone number should be on every page above the fold so that every user can easily find it when they need to call you.
Keeping it as simple as possible for users to get in touch with you is key. Having any interference with reaching your company can result in a loss of trust in your brand.
3. Poorly designed calls-to-action
The calls-to-action on your website should never be hidden—they should be in prominent locations and designed with mobile users in mind. If you want to grow the amount of sales you make, or the amount of leads that you receive. When accessing your site through mobile, users aren’t going to go through various pages. The best CTAs on mobile devices are always big buttons that are easy for the thumb to click on a touch screen device, preferably located above the fold.
On most e-commerce websites, the visitor doesn’t make a purchase on the first visit. One of the most effective ways to bring users back after their first visit to your website is through engaging content, or special promotions. To leverage this, you need to have the contact information of your users—and the best way to do that is with an eye-catching call-to-action for content such as a newsletter sign-up form. With a form that is easy-to-use, users will be more likely to complete the entire process. Encourage users to sign up with engaging copy and an enticing button to click on, explaining that if they sign up they’ll be eligible to receive deals exclusive to newsletter recipients.
At Blue Fountain Media, we use clear and prominently displayed calls-to-action to encourage newsletter sign ups that provide extensive value. Once a user has clicked on the CTA, our newsletter form is easy to fill out and optimized for customers using mobile keyboards.
Investing in your online presence
To have the most effective mobile site that you can, take the time to understand your own website and test it regularly. It may seem obvious, but many business owners or CEOs don’t implement analytics or take the time to analyze their own website. Understanding your bounce rates, traffic, and usage behavior will help you make the best decisions for your online business.
If you’re unsure, rest assured that you should definitely continue to invest in the online presence of your company—especially when it comes to mobile. The entire world and every aspect of any business will become increasingly dependent on mobile users as customers. While a lot of your traffic may be mostly coming from mobile devices but not immediately generating sales you can be sure that within a few years that traffic will continue to increase, and the majority of your sales will start to come from mobile.
Gabriel Shaoolian is a digital trends expert and CEO and founder of Blue Fountain Media, a digital agency in NYC focused on growing brands online through effective websites and online marketing. From start-ups to Fortune 1000s, Blue Fountain Media helps generate more leads and increased brand recognition.