How can you improve your mobile optimization? Here, for you, 9 best practices

Mobile optimization is becoming increasingly important as more and more users turn to their mobile devices to access the internet. Whether you're a business owner, a marketer, or a developer, optimizing your mobile experience is essential to providing your users with a seamless and engaging experience.

In this article, we will explore some of the best practices for mobile optimization we have accumulated during all the projects signed Acid Tango, designed to help you create a mobile experience that is fast, responsive, and user-friendly.

Implementing these best practices can reduce bounce rates, increase engagement, and drive more conversions and revenue. So let's dive in and explore some of the best practices for mobile optimization.

First of all, why is mobile optimization important?

Mobile optimization is crucial because of the increasing number of people using their mobile devices to access the internet: if a website is optimized for mobile devices, it can result in a better user experience. On the opposite scenario, users can find slow page loading times, and difficulty navigating the site. This can cause frustration and lead users to abandon the website and look for alternatives.

Furthermore, search engines like Google now prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their search results, which means that websites that need to be optimized for mobile may see a significant drop in traffic and visibility.

What is mobile optimization in SEO?

Mobile optimization in SEO refers to making a website mobile-friendly to access and view on a mobile device easily. This includes optimizing the website's design, layout, and functionality to provide a seamless user experience for mobile users.

As we already said, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites: this means that websites that are not optimized for mobile may see a significant drop in traffic and visibility.

Mobile optimization can include various techniques, such as responsive design, which allows a website to adjust its layout and content based on the size of the user's device. It can also involve optimizing images and videos for faster loading times on mobile devices, simplifying navigation, and reducing page load times.

Best practices for mobile optimization

1) Keep your layout and design simple

One of the most important mobile optimization best practices is to keep your website's layout and design simple. The reasons are:

• Easy navigation: when users access a website on their mobile devices, they expect to be able to navigate the site easily and find what they're looking for quickly. A simple and streamlined website design with clear navigation can make all the difference in providing a positive user experience. Avoid cluttering your website with too many elements, as this can confuse and frustrate users and make it easier for them to find what they need.
• Faster Loading Times: a simple website design also means faster loading times, which is crucial for mobile users who are often on the go and have limited time to wait for a website to load. Large images, videos, and other graphics can slow down your website's loading time, negatively impacting user experience and search engine rankings.

2) Images and texts only for mobile users (and the content need to be the same - mobile and desktop)

One common mobile optimization mistake is to show different images and texts to mobile users compared to desktop users. While it may seem like a good idea to tailor content to specific devices, this approach can create inconsistencies in user experience and hurt your website's credibility.

To avoid this, ensure your website displays the same content and images to all users, regardless of their device. By ensuring consistency in content, you can maintain a coherent message and provide a seamless user experience across devices.

Make sure that the text on your website is easily readable on small screens too. Avoid using small font sizes and keep the content concise and straightforward. A cluttered layout can make it difficult for users to read the content on their mobile devices, leading to a high bounce rate and reduced engagement.

3) Use A 'Top Down' Development Approach

A 'top-down' development approach means designing your website, starting from the mobile version and then scaling it up for desktop users. This approach ensures that the website is optimized for mobile users with slower internet connections and smaller screens. Focusing on the mobile version first allows you to create a streamlined and efficient design that works well on all devices.

There are several reasons why a 'top-down' development approach is beneficial for mobile optimization.

1. Firstly, it ensures the website is optimized for mobile users, who are increasingly important for businesses.
2. Secondly, it helps create a more streamlined and efficient design, improving user experience and engagement. Finally, it can reduce development time and cost, as you can focus on designing the most critical features for mobile users first.

4) Buttons MUST be user friendly

Buttons play an important role in the user interface design, as they are one of the primary ways users interact with your content. Whether it's to submit a form, make a purchase, or navigate through the app, buttons should be clear and easy to understand. A well-designed button can provide clarity, satisfaction, and a positive user experience.

To make your buttons more user-friendly, here are some best practices to follow:

• Make buttons large enough: mobile screens are smaller than desktop screens, so it's important to make them large enough to be easily clickable. The general rule of thumb is to make the touch target at least 44 pixels wide and 44 pixels tall. This ensures that users can easily tap the button with their fingers without accidentally tapping other elements on the screen.
• Use clear and concise labels: the text on your buttons should be clear and concise, and accurately describe what will happen when the button is clicked. Avoid using vague labels such as "click here" or "submit." Instead, use descriptive labels that convey the user's action, such as "Sign Up" or "Add to Cart."
• Use contrasting colors: to make your buttons stand out, use contrasting colors that make them easy to see and distinguish from other elements on the screen. Use colors that complement your brand but provide enough contrast to ensure the button is easily visible.
• Use familiar shapes and symbols: users are accustomed to certain shapes and symbols for different actions, such as the "X" for closing a window or the hamburger menu icon for opening a navigation menu. Use these familiar shapes and symbols to make your buttons more intuitive and easily understood.
• Test your buttons: it's important to test your buttons to ensure they are working properly and providing a good user experience. Test them on different devices and screen sizes, and consider running user tests to get feedback from actual users.

5) Optimize your code, always

Optimizing your code involves changing your website or application's code to improve its performance and speed. This can include reducing the size of your files, minimizing the number of requests made to the server, and using modern web development techniques that improve loading times.

Optimizing your code has several benefits for mobile optimization. For one, it can improve the overall user experience by reducing loading times and ensuring that pages load quickly on mobile devices. On the other hand, slow loading times can frustrate users and lead to high bounce rates, which can hurt your website's SEO.

Another benefit of optimizing your code is that it can improve the scalability of your website or application. As your website or application grows, and more users access it, optimizing your code can ensure that it continues to perform well and meet the demands of your users.

6) Flash and Java are already old news. Use HTML5

When it comes to mobile optimization, choosing the right technology stack is critical to ensuring that your website or application performs well on mobile devices. Unfortunately, with the advent of HTML5, using technologies such as Flash and Java has become outdated and ineffective.

HTML5 is a markup language that works seamlessly across different devices and platforms. It offers several benefits for mobile optimization, including improved performance, reduced load times, and greater flexibility in designing responsive layouts.

One of the key advantages of HTML5 is its ability to reduce load times. In addition, unlike Flash and Java, which require additional software installed on the user's device, HTML5 is native to most modern browsers. This means that users can access your website or application without downloading additional software, resulting in faster load times and a better user experience.

HTML5 also provides greater flexibility in designing responsive layouts, which is critical for mobile optimization. With HTML5, you can create dynamic and fluid layouts that adapt to different screen sizes and resolutions, ensuring your website or application looks great on any device.

Another advantage of HTML5 is its support for multimedia elements, such as audio and video. With HTML5, you can embed multimedia content directly into your website or application without additional plugins or software. This makes it easier for users to access and interact with your content on mobile devices, resulting in a better user experience.

Finally, in addition to these benefits, HTML5 also offers greater security and accessibility compared to older technologies such as Flash and Java. HTML5 is designed with security in mind, and its use of modern web standards ensures that your website or application is accessible to users with disabilities.

7) Don't abuse popups

One of the most important best practices for mobile optimization is avoiding abusing popups. While popups can effectively capture user attention and promote certain actions, they can also hurt the user experience if overused or implemented inappropriately.

One of the key issues with popups on mobile devices is that they can be difficult to dismiss, particularly on smaller screens. This can lead to frustration, a negative user experience, and lower engagement and conversion rates.

To avoid abusing popups on mobile devices, using them judiciously and strategically is important. This means only using popups when necessary, such as promoting limited-time offers or capturing user email addresses. It also means ensuring that popups are designed to be easy to dismiss, with clear and visible close buttons that are easy to tap on a mobile device.

8) The analysis is always important: use Google Analytics and other tools like HotJar

It would be best if you always prioritized analysis and data-driven decision-making. With a thorough understanding of how users interact with your website or application, it's possible to make informed decisions about optimizing for mobile devices.

Fortunately, there are a variety of tools available that can help you collect and analyze data about user behavior on your website or application:

• Google Analytics: this free tool from Google provides a wide range of data about user behavior, including pageviews, bounce rates, time on site, and conversion rates. It also offers insights into where your traffic is coming from and what devices they're using.
• Adobe Analytics: this enterprise-level tool provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, including real-time data collection, segmentation, and predictive analytics.
• Mixpanel: it focuses on user engagement, providing insights into how users interact with your app or website, including which features are most popular and where users are dropping off.
• Hotjar: it provides heatmaps, visitor recordings, and user feedback surveys to help you understand how users interact with your site or app and identify areas for improvement.
• Crazy Egg: this tool also offers heatmaps, click-tracking, and A/B testing tools to help you optimize your site for better user engagement and conversion rates.
• Mouseflow: it focuses on session replay, heatmaps, and funnel analysis to help you understand how users are navigating your site and where they may be getting stuck.
• Lucky Orange: this tool offers real-time visitor analytics, including heatmaps, session recordings, and chat support, to help you identify issues and improve the user experience.

9) Watch it with the weight of your images

Slow page load times are a major source of frustration for mobile users and can result in high bounce rates and lower engagement. Therefore, optimizing your mobile experience is important to ensure your images are as lightweight as possible without sacrificing quality.

Have you ever heard about WebP images? It is an image format developed by Google that provides superior compression and quality compared to other formats like JPEG and PNG. For example, webP images can be up to 34% smaller compared to JPEG and PNG without any noticeable loss in quality.
WebP images are becoming increasingly important for web developers and designers due to their smaller file sizes, which can significantly improve website load times and reduce bandwidth usage. This is especially important for mobile users, where slow load times can lead to high bounce rates and lost conversions.