On April 21, 2015, Google released a new algorithm update in the name of “Mobilegeddon.” It punished websites that were not mobile friendly. Google designed and released this algorithm update to put more emphasis on mobile optimized pages. As a consequence, many mobile-optimized websites ranked higher on Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages). At the same time, websites that lacked mobile-optimized web pages lose their place in Google’s SERPs.
In the immediate aftermath, the need and popularity of mobile-friendly websites has increased dramatically. Now almost every business is looking for a mobile-friendly or cross-responsive website designed by professional website developers.
A mobile-friendly website guarantees many of the following benefits:
• More website visibility
• Better user experience
• More website traffic
• Improved performance in both the search market and the display market
• Faster download speed
• Portability and connectivity
• Significant brand identity
• New advertising opportunities
• Better interaction with mobile-specific features like click-to-call, mapping features, and many like these
How to create a website optimized for mobile devices:
Use a responsive design
Responsive web design ensures an optimal viewing experience and an enhanced interaction experience. A responsive web page is easily configured in various media environments and adapts the screen sizes (resolutions) of various Internet access devices. It becomes easily viewable with minimal resizing, panning, and scrolling effort on a variety of devices such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, iPods, etc.
To do this, professional web designers and website developers use flexible layouts, flexible images, CSS3, Bootstrap, media queries, fluid grids, and ratio-based. Responsive web pages are smart enough to detect the size and orientation of the visitor’s screen. You can adopt the modified design accordingly.
Include a viewport meta tag
The viewport is a virtual area followed by browsers. It helps search engines determine how each content on a web page is scaled and sized. Tells a browser that its web pages should fit the available screen sizes. Using it in the header section is always good and recommended.
Use high resolution images
It is always advisable to use high resolution images. It will guarantee a better user experience and a high standard. The latest smartphones use high definition displays. These require a high resolution image that is almost twice the resolution of a desktop. Getting high-resolution images helps you avoid image blur and other pixel-related problems.
Take care of button sizes and fonts
You must consider the sizes of the buttons and fonts. Button and font sizes are very important for smartphones and other mobile devices. The font size must be at least 14 px. Similarly, the size of the button should be at least 44 px by 44 px (according to Apple’s design guidelines).