By the end of this year, mobile devices will outnumber people on Earth, a recent study by Cisco says.
Think about it. Every potential customer you’re after has a cell phone, and most of them have a smartphone or a tablet – or both. That is reason enough to make sure your website is ready for all the users, who will be browsing it on their mobile devices. Are you sure yours is ready?
If your web design is responsive, you will confidently reply “yes!”. And that is where you’re mistaken. The web design might be adjusting to the screen sizes and so on, but if the content is not written with a mobile user in mind, most likely it just won’t be read. When you browse a website while on the bus or waiting in line, will you actually read a full-length page of unstructured content? Exactly.
That’s why a mobile-ready website is not just about the web design. Going responsive is only the first step, and here are a few tips to help you make the content mobile-compatible, too.
Keep It Short
Scrolling down a really long page is tiresome and annoying for your reader, especially if their eyes have to strain to read the content on a small smartphone screen. Plus, the visitors are mostly on the go, so they only have one or two minutes to get the message. So stick to the point and keep your content short and sweet.
Keep It Structured
Most of us scan a page before we read it to get an idea if it’s actually worth going on. Plus, our attention is easily distracted, and a long post without headings or other attention grabbers has little chances to get read till the end. With mobile users, it’s especially true, so feel free to use lists, bullet points, subheadings and other elements that immediately communicate what information the reader will get.
Keep It Easy to Read
Once again, there are lots of distractions around your mobile visitor. They’ll find it hard to keep focused on your long sentences and complicated ideas. So make sure it’s easy to follow your thought and get back to it after replying to the waiter or getting off the train.
Keep Important Things First
Mobile users are even more impatient that your regular website visitors, because most often they use the search to get immediate answers or help. So make sure you put the most helpful information first, so that it’s obvious and easy to find. Tell your readers exactly what they should do instead of rambling on for pages and pages.
As you already know, your content is every bit as important for a mobile browser as your web design is. Unfortunately, you can’t get your content adapt to the mobile devices, but you can make it mobile-friendly to begin with.
How about your website? Do you think about the mobile users when you create the content for it? Feel free to reply in the comments.
