Leaving for vacation? Ready to unwind and check out from the day-to-day grind? Since you’re such a dedicated employee, you might be taking your laptop with you and get an itch to do something constructive.
Here’s an easy way to return to your office with some insightful analysis: Take a fresh look at your website on your mobile device.
“But I look at the website all the time!” you might say.
So why now? Because you’re a different person away from the office. At your desk, you may not be able to objectively evaluate your user's experience.
Use your vacation as an opportunity to clearly look at the mobile-friendliness of your website with rested, vacation eyes. It’s your chance to stop being your company’s marketer or IT specialist and put yourself in your customer’s sandals.
Plus, Google is now looking at the mobile version of websites first. Back in April 2019, Google confirmed what most web developers believed: Google’s algorithm would place a higher value on the mobile-friendliness of websites as a ranking signal. That means that if your site isn’t optimized for mobile, search engines may favor a competitor over your website.
What does “optimize for mobile" mean? It’s also called “responsive” web design, meaning the site will “respond” and resize for different-sized screens. There are other factors, but design elements are the biggies.
So kick back, grab a frosty daiquiri and take a quick look at the questions below and see if your website is mobile-friendly. (We recommend performing this test while you’re lying on the beach.)
6 Easy Questions to Check if Your Website is Mobile-Friendly:
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Did the site fully load in 1-3 seconds?
If it takes longer than 3 seconds, your customers may get frustrated and choose a competitor.
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Do the photos look like you expect?
If the photos are blurry, overlap, or are broken (eeks!) you’ve got problems with image sizes and formats.
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Do you have to scroll left and right to see all the content?
If the content is wider than the screen, it’s not considered usable on mobile. Your site may not have a viewport property, a code that tells search engines how to size the webpages for various screen devices. If you do have the code, it may not be set to “device-width.”
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Is the text large enough to read without pinch and zoom?
If the text is too small to read, and users have to “pinch to zoom,” the font sizes need to be scaled for mobile so that the text is easily legible.
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Can you click buttons and links easily?
If the clickable elements are too small or too close together, you’ll have to zoom in with your fingers. That creates a cumbersome experience for your user.
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Was it an enjoyable experience overall?
If you were your customer, would you want to come back and tell others about the great company you found on the web or were you frustrated by the experience?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your site may be in need of some technical tweaks. Your website should be so easy to use and such an enjoyable experience, your customers won’t mind looking at it, even when they’re on vacation.
LRS Web Solutions can help get your site mobile-friendly. Here’s what to do next.
Two Clicks and Help is on the Way
Just fill out the quick form below to send us an alert. We’ll get in touch when you’re back in the office and talk about how we can turn your website into a mobile-friendly site.
When you get back to the office, you’ll have valuable information and an action plan for the boss.
What a good employee you are! You deserve a vacation. 😉