Easy 10 Point Checklist for Your Mobile Website [INFOGRAPHIC]
Selene Benjamin
Remember back in April of 2015 when Google updated their algorithm? Again.
Just in case, let me quickly remind you. (They do a lot of these updates so it’s easy to get them confused.) In what some referred to as “Mobilegeddon,” if your site wasn’t mobile responsive, you could expect a mobile-(not-so)-friendly hit.
In other words, you lost your spot in the search rankings on mobile device searches.
“Oh, mobile searches?” you say. “No big deal. It’s just mobile.”
But surely, we in-the-know Mirasee community members are aware this was and is a big deal. Mobile has kind of been taking over the world, and it has been for some time now.
Mobile usage jumped above desktop usage back in 2014. I think it’s safe to say this trend is no longer a trend but the norm.
While the PC remains relevant—even though some younger generations are mobile-only at this point—it’s important to keep in mind it’s not just those young whippersnappers swiping left and right driving mobile’s prevalence in our world.
In fact, thanks to to studies done by comScore, we now know, “the 55-years-and-older consumer segment is actually the fastest growing faction of mobile users.”
When you can get anything from a ride home, your weekly groceries, to therapy with just a tap, no matter your niche, your site must be mobile responsive.
So I ask again. Remember that update back in April of 2015? In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago. But when you consider how fast things move in our little land of the internet, this means you lost out on tons of potential clients/visitors/subscribers if you weren’t ready.
If getting your site mobile ready has been on your to-do list, it’s past time to check that item off the list.
To help you out, we found this helpful infographic from WSI World.
Make your site more smartphone and tablet friendly with this mobile website checklist. (Because you never know when or where your next client is when they decide they need to find you. *cough cough the bathroom)
Source: WSI World
Mobile for the Win
As you can see, the focus of making a site mobile ready is to make it as easy to use and as intuitive as possible for your visitors, just like you would any site.
First, check your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Then make sure your site implements all of the relevant elements in the checklist.
Things like:
- Click-to-call
- Fast loading times
- Just saying no to huge graphics and flash
Like it or not, we’re living in the mobile world. And I hope you see much clearer—thanks to this checklist.
If visitors struggle to see or use your site, they will click away and move on to your competitor. That is, if they can even find you depending on how your site fared after the great Mobilegeddon. And if that happened? Then use this checklist to get back into the good Google graces.
Over to you. Did you make your site mobile responsive? Or are you still thinking, “I really need to do that soon”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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about author
Selene Benjamin
Selene was Mirasee's managing editor in 2015-2016. When she's not spending her days writing, editing, and planning the editorial calendar for the blog, she's playing around with SEO for the site and for her own personal amusement.
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Vinod
Hi Selene,
Great article, much to learn there. Yes some pop-ups drive me crazy exactly for the reason you stated – it’s not clear how to get rid of them off the screen!
I often read your articles on ipad2 and unfortunately it shows on the left hand side how many shares were sent out on FaceBook, Twitter etc. UnfortunAtely this does not move out of the way when you scroll the screen. Could You please move it to one place where it stays put and scrolls out of site with the screen when it’s moved up or down.
Alternatively may be reformat the text layout to leave a margin on the left so that text is not hidden behind the share information.
No problem if nothing can be done Selene, I can live with it
Vinod
James
Great pot shared.
Pat
Hey Selene, some quick questions.
Make it devoid of pop-ups? What about the opening call to action get on my list pop-up?
What’s a heavy graphic? What are ideal sizes?
Selene Benjamin
Hi Pat!
I think rather than devoid of any and all pop-ups, it’s more stay away from pop-ups that redirect or are frustrating for the user. Like ones that are difficult to figure out how to close. I’ve seen mobile sites that still have a pop-up but it’s clear how to get rid of it.
If your site/theme is responsive you should be ok. There are also plugins where you can change the settings too if the screen is smaller than a certain size, the pop-up is disabled. And I believe if you’re comfortable with going into the code, there’s a code for it. Not being a developer, I don’t know off hand what or how but a google search might yield some good results to help you.
And the same for your graphics. If your images are ok for your desktop site and your theme is responsive, it resizes it for the screen your mobile site is being viewed on.
Kathy G
what are some sites that give website code to do all that mobile friendly stuff?
Kathryn Aragon
Kathy, if your theme is responsive, you don’t have to worry about it too much. It probably has shortcodes for creating css buttons and takes care of layout issues automatically. If your site isn’t already responsive, look for the plugin, WP Touch. It makes any site responsive.