Table of Contents
Are there free tools to test my website on different devices?
You can test your website’s mobile performance by visiting different pages on your smartphone or tablet. However, you should also use free tools if you can’t afford a full paid version. BrowserStack and Responsive Design Checker are two places to start.
Some site-testing tools have free tiers or trials, so you should check to see what your allowances are.
Can I use developer tools to test mobile responsiveness?
By pressing F12 or your computer’s equivalent (i.e., command + option + 12 on macOS), you can use developer tools in Chrome and other browsers. When using developer tools, you should understand the text that you see because it appears in different codes.
In some browsers, you can use the settings menu to navigate to developer tools. You should, if possible, hire a developer to understand what everything means.
What should I look for when testing mobile responsiveness?
Since most traffic comes from mobile devices, site layouts need to fit on a mobile page. Factors to consider include text size and font readability. You should also think about resizing visuals (i.e. infographics and photos), and checking video embed loading times.
Check your site page loading times by testing them on your own devices. Aim to optimize for loading times that are less than a second, test your pages each time you change your website layout or add a new page.
It’s a good idea to audit your site every 6-12 months and delete pages you no longer need; quality over quantity is worthwhile. Think about the buttons on your site’s pages, too – optimize their sizes accordingly, ask for feedback, and change the colors if they aren’t visible enough as helpful starting points.
Why is it important to have a mobile-friendly website?
Companies and blogs should prioritize mobile optimization because it’s likely that users will first interact with their sites from mobile. Therefore, the first impression will determine whether they decide to re-visit at another point.
You should also implement mobile optimization for SEO. Google considers factors that mobile optimization crosses when ranking pages, such as user experience. The time spent on pages can also sometimes play a role in mobile-friendliness.
What happens if my website is not mobile-friendly?
Each of the following will likely occur:
- Higher bounce rates (people leaving more quickly without getting the info they were looking for).
- Lower conversions (fewer sign-ups and sales because more people will leave your pages).
- Lower search engine visibility (Google ranks mobile-optimized sites higher than those that aren’t).
Websites not optimized for mobile often have similar signs that the developer needs to address. For example, users may spend less time on each page – this can sometimes be due to them finding the info they need, though, so you’ll need to dig deeper into your analytics.
If a desktop-optimized page is accessed on a smartphone or tablet, users often need to scroll horizontally to find different pages. Other signs that a user is accessing desktop-optimized sites on mobile include longer loading times and not seeing an “m.” in the URL (not all sites have this, though).
Test your websites on mobile devices and determine whether you have optimized pages for these categories. Use tools to determine where you need to improve and work on those specific areas. Sometimes, Google tells you why it hasn’t ranked pages – so you can take that advice too.
What are the differences between mobile-friendly, mobile-first design, and mobile-first indexing?
The three terms are all intertwined, but they don’t mean the same thing, and you should therefore know what each of them is before you start designing a website.
- Mobile Friendliness: How a website works on mobile devices (iOS, Android, tablet, etc.)
- Mobile-First Design: Starting with how a website looks on mobile and then optimizing for desktop.
- Mobile-First Indexing: This refers to SEO. Google uses mobile-first indexing to determine where it ranks different sites in search engine result pages (SERPs).
What to do if my website is not mobile-friendly?
Start by implementing responsive design; if necessary, you should create a separate mobile version of your website. Change the website template if needed and remove unnecessary elements. If you don’t have technical knowledge, hire a web developer to fix site issues.
Ignoring site issues will worsen performance and visibility in the long run, but fortunately, you don’t need a huge budget to make changes. Start with smaller changes if you don’t have the budget for a developer, such as adjusting navigation and optimizing the visual content on your page.
Conclusion
When designing a website, you should start with mobile optimization. Generally speaking, you can take the aspects of a mobile-optimized site and use them on a desktop device – but you cannot do the opposite in most cases. Use tools for testing pages and implement recommendations for improvement where they are needed.
Mobile optimization factors include layout, design, file sizes, and responsiveness. When building your website with a website builder, be sure to select one that emphasizes responsive design that makes your site versatile for all screen sizes. You might also need to look at your hosting provider and see if there is something with faster loading times. Regularly your site and make changes where required, and research how to build a site further.
