How To Ensure Content Is Mobile Optimised

If you’ve been following news in the SEO industry lately, hopefully your website is already mobile responsive. But is the content mobile optimised? If the content of your site isn’t optimised for mobile, it could be adversely affecting both user experience (known as UX) as well as impacting conversion rates.

WHAT IS ‘MOBILEGEDDON’?

In April 2015, Google rolled out a major global algorithm update which the media quickly dubbed ‘Mobilegeddon’. This update meant that mobile optimisation would be used as a ranking factor for mobile searches, so that websites that were mobile responsive would naturally rank above an otherwise equivalent site that was not ready for mobile users.

So the rush to make sites mobile responsive began, immeasurably improving the small screen experience for mobile internet users everywhere, and yet this development work only answers part of the question. In fact, having bespoke, mobile-optimised content is required for a positive user experience and potentially greater conversion rates.

If you have never considered mobile content, this article covers all the advice you need to make a big difference with the smaller displays.

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS VIEW MOBILE CONTENT

As you’re probably already aware, reading content on a mobile device is completely different to reading content on a desktop. In 2006, a study by Jakob Nielsen found that people read web pages in an F-Shaped pattern that consists of two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. A separate eye-tracking study carried out by Briggsby found mobile-users view web content primarily on the centre of the screen, with 86% of their attention on the upper two-thirds. In addition, a US National Institute of Health study found that internet users’ eyes are drawn more to images than text, helping to demonstrate that the placement of images and text is crucial if you want your content to stand out!

When optimising your content for mobile, it’s usually best to reduce the number of images that take up screen space and bandwidth so that focus may be primarily on the information within your text. Taking into account those studies mentioned, it would be best to ensure your most important content features in the top two-thirds of the page if you are keen to give this information prominent visibility.

CONSIDER THE USABILITY OF THE CONTENT

Although tone of voice is critical to both engage readers and ensuring your content reinforces your brand identity, there’s also a slightly different need mobile users have.

In addition to having a limited-size display, a mobile user is much more likely to either be out and about travelling or perhaps in a much more casual setting. In either case, you should keep text short and snappy. Get to the point, if your company ‘about us’ page is too long then perhaps a mobile user would be most happy with the basic information i.e. contact address, phone number (with a link) and email? You can still link to further testimonials or information about the product or service as needed.

This is probably best all around, as a study as recently as 2015 by Microsoft showed that (in general) reader’s attention spans are dropping.

It's also a good idea to keep paragraphs short as possible, even to the point where each sentence becomes a new paragraph (although this is very subjective). You may think three or four sentences look fine on a desktop, but on a mobile this can quickly becomes a wall of text!

ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE USER WANTS

It’s important to consider what you mobile users need from the site: are thier needs the same as those using desktops? How do they differ?

A great example of this is the difference between the Trainline desktop and mobile offerings – you’ll notice the desktop offers a media-rich aesthetically pleasing page using the full width. Where a mobile has the all-important search-box that will start a user's journey to finding a suitable train and booking tickets.

While responsive design may be vital to ensuring your site both complies with Google’s mobile algorithm and offers your visitors a good user experience, to increase traffic and conversion rates you need to ensure your content itself is fully optimised.

If you have any concerns or questions about your mobile content and want to ensure your website is fully mobile optimised, why not get in touch with our team today?