Web Design in Texas Tips: How to Make a Website Mobile Friendly
Today's internet users are on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones of all screen sizes. Creating one website in one size and assuming your readers will adapt is wishful thinking.
As you're thinking of a new website, it is absolutely essential that you bring in experts familiar with web design in TX. They can't be professionals doing any type of web design, though. You need someone who is able to produce a mobile-friendly website for you.
Why Mobile-Friendly Isn't Just an Option
We want you to know exactly what we mean when we talk about a mobile-friendly website. This term means displaying a different version or style of your website to visitors viewing your site from a smartphone or tablet. This is done in order to give them a better experience.
There are several ways you can achieve this. We recommend looking into responsive design. When created with a responsive style, your website’s design adjusts to adapt to the screen size. A responsively-designed website can adapt to someone changing the size of their desktop tab or browsing from a mobile device.
And yes- many people are viewing your website this way! By 2015, more Google searches were carried out on mobile devices than desktop for the first time ever. They’ve only gone up since then! Over half of all website traffic worldwide now happens on smartphones.
Because of this rise, Google has changed the way that it crawls the internet. They now index mobile sites first, then desktop sites. This can lead to very poor SEO results for websites that have a separate mobile version and a desktop version, especially if those two site versions differ from one another.
How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website
Remember that user experience is key. In what felt like the blink of an eye, smartphones went from expensive new technology to a regular part of everyday life. With this change came the need for better, mobile-friendly websites.
A mobile-friendly website is created by taking anywhere from a few to a dozen or more steps. It's a bit complicated for those who aren't incredibly familiar with web design in TX, but here are the basics:
Choose a Responsive Theme or Template
Whether you are working with a team of web designers (which you should be!) or selecting a template on your own, the first step is to ensure the theme itself is mobile-friendly.
Use a Large and Readable Font
Experts recommend that you use a font size of at least 14px. This isn't the time to try a fun and funky design unless that's on-brand for you. Whatever you decide upon, ensure it's actually legible on screens of all sizes.
Make Images and CSS as "Light" as Possible
Each element on your website carries a virtual "weight." A video or image has a file size and code that needs to be loaded each time the website is clicked on. Another way to think of light is "fast." The lighter your code, the quicker the website loads. Google has been very clear about the fact that website speed is a crucial ranking factor. Slow, "heavy" websites will rank poorly on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Avoid Flash
In years past, Flash was used to create animations. It generally isn’t supported by mobile devices, so it is best you avoid using this altogether in your website project.
Pay Close Attention to Button Size and Placement
When you hold your phone, you’re probably using your thumbs for pretty much everything. Anything you can’t reach with your thumb becomes a pain. A helpful button can quickly become an annoying button on mobile if it’s in the wrong place or is the wrong size.
The Old State Has Experts Familiar in Mobile-Friendly Web Design in TX
A mobile-unfriendly site looks outdated like your business is stuck back in the past. Potential buyers will wonder what else might you be behind on. Even if you’re better and more experienced than your competitors, you could lose business to them simply because people find their website more trustworthy. We don't want this to happen to you!
That is why our team who handles web design in TX looks forward to hearing from you and learning about your upcoming project. Responsive design is the bare minimum you should be aiming for. This is what Google recommends, and it is one of the best routes you can take to make your website more accessible to anyone and everyone. That being said, we would like to discuss all of your options with you. Reach out to us today and request a proposal!