How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website: A Beginner’s Guide

A mobile-friendly website is one that is easy to access and navigate from a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. These websites are typically designed with a simplified design for a smaller screen, making them easier to use on a smaller device. Additionally, mobile-friendly websites are often designed to load quickly and withstand slower internet connections.

The emphasis on building solid mobile-friendly websites is driven by recent trends. For one, mobile friendliness will allow you to reach a wider audience, as more and more people—about 59%—use mobile devices to access the internet. Likewise, many emerging markets are skipping the desktop version of websites and moving straight to mobile apps.

This article discusses eight tips for creating a responsive website.

1. Make a responsive website
2. Avoid large chunks of text
3. Choose button size and placement
4. Include a search function
5. Optimize image sizes
6. Eliminate pop-ups
7. Improve loading speeds
8. Use Viewport Meta Tag

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How to make a mobile-friendly website

Step 1: Make the design responsive

A responsive website is a site that can adapt to any screen size. The website automatically adjusts to fit the screen size, whether a user is viewing the site on a desktop computer or mobile device and whether the device is in portrait or landscape mode.

Responsive design is important because it gives users an excellent experience no matter how they access your website. With more people using mobile devices to browse the internet, it’s important to design your website to work well on all devices.

The following tips will help you make a respOnsive mobile-friendly site that can adapt to various screen sizes and resolutions:

• Select CSS media query breakpoints. One way to build responsive web design is to use CSS media queries to create different layouts for different screen sizes. Choose the breakpoints, or widths, at which you want to change the layout. A good starting point is 320px, 480px, 768px, and 1024px resolutions. Next, you'll create different CSS rules for each breakpoint. For example, you might have one set of rules for screens that are 320px wide and another for screens that are 768px wide. Finally, you'll use the @media rule to optimize the code for each screen size.
• Define typography. Creating responsive typography allows the font to adjust to the user's screen. For example, this HTML code line ensures the typography adjusts to and fits whichever screen size it displays on.

--CODE language-markup line-numbers--
html { font-size:100%; }

You can also add the @media tag to define the font size for various resolutions. Adding the @media CSS tag wíll help improve responsiveness by adjusting the site’s content to the various content screen sizes. The min-width property allows you to set the minimum size for the content. Setting the min-width to 640 pexels (px) automatically adjusts smaller contents (less than 640px) to expand to 640px.

Another important element to note is the rem tag which defines the size of the content. The Rem (also called root em) unit is a standard unit for measuring the font size of elements. For example, 1rem equals 16px while 1.5 rem converts to 24px.

--CODE language-markup line-numbers--
@media (min-width:640px) { body {font-size:1rem;} }
@media (min-width:960px) { body {font-size:1.2rem;} }
@media (min-width:1100px) { body {font-size:1.5rem;} }

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Step 2: Avoid large chunks of text

Large chunks of text can be difficult to read on a small screen. They can also make a website feel cluttered and overwhelming. Mobile users typically look for quick and easy-to-digest information, so long blocks of text can be off-putting and overwhelming. Instead, focus on creating short, attention-grabbing pieces of content that are easy to scan and digest.

When creating your website, break text into small, easy-to-read paragraphs. You can also use headings and subheadings to help readers find the information they want. By following these tips, you can create a mobile site that is both easy to read and mobile-friendly.

• Build a visual hierarchy. The aim is to introduce appropriate headers into your content to help readers identify the main points or sections from a glance. For website copies, you can develop each block with a header and short copy description.
• Use one text block per idea. Whether you're building a homepage or a blog article page, avoid long texts by sticking to one idea per block. For blog posts, keep paragraphs short and use headers to divide content.
• Use white space and negative spacing. White space is the space between elements on a page, and negative space is the open space within those elements. Using these spaces as design elements helps you create a more mobile-friendly website. Use white spacing to highlight key points, avoid cluttering text, and give enough space between words and succeeding lines.

Step 3: Choose button size and placement

Buttons are essential website design elements, especially when giving a call to action (CTA). They provide users with a way to take action on a web page, whether clicking to learn more about a product, adding items to their carts, or completing purchases.

These buttons must be easy to find, catchy enough to get the visitor's attention, and clickable for mobile and desktop users.

People often focus their attention on specific regions of a webpage. Various design elements also influence visual patterns. This concept is known as eye predictability.

When building a generally responsive design, place buttons where people can expect to see them. Insights from Nielsen Norman Group show that people tend to focus on the text next to images that give more information and texts next to larger fonts or headers.

Based on the page’s orientation, you can also predict the possible pattern of interacting with the page—like F, Zigzag, or lawn mower patterns. Keep the buttons in confluence with the page pattern to attract the most attention.

Here are some tips to consider when designing buttons for a responsive website:

• Apply contrast. Applying contrasting colors between the website background, the button, and the anchor text makes the button more legible and noticeable. For instance, you can use a light color for the button text, a dark color for the button itself, and a contrasting color for the area around the button. Another way to apply contrast is to use a different color for the button’s border.
• Include a call to action. Adding a call to action gives visitors a sense of direction. For example, adding short captions like “Submit" or "Start Here" lets the user know what to expect at the other end of the link.
• Optimize the button size. Size is important when creating website buttons. Buttons that are too small can be difficult to press, while buttons that are too large can take up too much space on a small screen. Keeping the dimensions around 10 millimeters by 10 millimeters ensures the button is legible and optimized for mobile users and their varying fingertip sizes.
• Optimize button position. Most people use their dominant thumb to tap interactively, so place buttons within easy thumb reach, generally the lower right portion of the screen.

Step 4: Include a search function

Mobile screens are much smaller than desktops. As a result, finding specific details can be difficult. Including a search function on your website can help users find the information they need quickly and easily and improve your site's overall usability.

• Search tool design. How you design your search bar will depend on the emphasis you want to make on using search to navigate your website. News websites often place a simple icon at the corner of the menu bar. E-commerce websites typically have a larger search bar at the top of the homepage and higher contrast to make it easier to spot.
• Include filters. Adding filters, for example, “Price high to low,” to the search function is crucial for websites with large collections and datasets. Filters can help users narrow down search results by allowing them to specify certain criteria. As such, they spend less time searching through irrelevant content.
• Consider adding query suggestions and autocomplete. Query suggestions are small predictions that appear as you type a query into the search bar. They're based on what other users have searched for in the past and can help you refine your search. Autocomplete is similar, but it automatically completes your search query based on the most popular past searches.

Step 5: Optimize image sizes

While website images, infographics, and animations can be helpful for engagement, optimizing them for mobile is crucial for a satisfactory user experience. The picture at the top of this section shows two mobile pages.

The image on the left shows a website that doesn't optimize the image and layout for mobile. As a result, the content appears tiny and visitors must zoom in to interact with the website properly. On the other hand, the image on the right provides a closer and more fitting view of the image and other web content.

• Resize and compress larger images. Having large image files can significantly reduce a website's page-loading speed. One way to achieve quality images is to compress image file sizes while maintaining quality. You can use tools like JPEG Optimizer, Kraken, and Compressor.io.
• Use an image content delivery network. Image content delivery networks (CDNs) help optimize images for a website by compressing and caching them. This can improve website performance by reducing the time it takes to load images. However, CDNs should be used in conjunction with other optimization techniques, such as reducing image file sizes and using gzip compression.
• Test the image performance for mobile. Tools like Website Image Analysis help you analyze images on your website and see how they affect the general loading speed. Using this tool gives an indication of which images will need more compression.

Step 6: Eliminate pop-ups

While pop-ups can sometimes be effective for getting leads and closing sales, many internet users think they’re a nuisance. This is especially true on mobile devices, where pop-ups can be even more intrusive and tend to cover nearly the entire website display.

Insights from a survey conducted by G2 showed that 82.2% of respondents disliked email pop-ups for several reasons. Most respondents were put off by seeing pop-ups on multiple sites or appearing each time they enter a website.

Since you're interested in building a user-friendly experience, considering the users' interests and dislikes becomes crucial when designing your desktop and mobile sites. As such, you can opt for several other alternatives for gathering leads and feedback. Here are some alternatives:

• Use natural calls to action. A case study by Frictionless Commerce reveals interactive CTAs to be effective alternatives to pop-ups. The strategy worked by introducing short CTAs at specific points on the webpage. Once readers click the link, a small widget allows users to input their emails and other information. Frictionless Commerce generated 670% more click-throughs using this approach.

• Lead magnet. A lead magnet is a freebie offered to potential leads in exchange for their contact information. The gift can be something as simple as a PDF guide, free ebook, newsletter, or research report. The key is to offer something valuable to your target audience that they can't find anywhere else.
• Slide-in banners. Slide-in banners, also known as corner peel ads, are a type of online advertising that allows you to display a banner ad in the corner of a website. These banners are usually unobtrusive and can be set to appear after a user visits a site for a certain period or after they have scrolled to a certain point on the page. Slide-in banners are a great way to generate leads, especially if you’re promoting a content offer or an ebook.

Step 7: Improve loading speeds

A website’s page load speed is the time it takes for a page to fully load when a visitor goes to that site. Optimizing the load speed is a crucial factor for improving user experience. Insights from a survey by Digital.com reveals that visitors are more likely to stay on a site that loads quickly (3 seconds or less) and are less likely to return to a site that takes a long time to load.

Beyond the user experience, page load speed significantly affects the website's search engine ranking. According to Google documentation, pages with faster load time will likely get better SEO ranking because of the mobile-first indexing pattern. The following tips will help you get better load speeds.

• Adopt lazy loading. Lazy loading works by loading images only when they are needed. That is, an image doesn’t load until the user scrolls to the area where the image is located. Loading all images on a page as soon as the page is loaded can take longer, especially if a page has many images.
• Use a fast-loading theme. WordPress developers can use lightweight themes to build a mobile website. Themes and plug-ins can optimize the page and reduce page load speed.
• Reduce the number of redirects. Redirects are a common occurrence on the web. Whenever you click on a URL, the server will typically redirect you to the desired page. However, each redirect adds additional time to the page load speed because the browser has to make an additional request to the server for each redirect. By reducing the number of redirects, you can significantly reduce the page load speed. There are a few ways to do this, such as using URL shorteners or directly linking to the desired page. Additionally, you can ask your web developer to reduce the number of redirects on your website by minimizing the number of plugins on the website or removing pages with links to redirect.

Step 8: Use Viewport meta tag

The viewport meta tag is an HTML element that allows you to control how a website displays on a mobile device. Using the viewport meta tag ensures your website’s mobile version displays correctly on different devices.

The viewport meta tag has a number of different attributes for controlling your website’s display properties.

--CODE language-markup line-numbers--
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />

This is a typical viewport code line for optimizing mobile apps and websites with diverse screen sizes. The width attribute, in this case, is set to device-width, optimizing the program for mobile screens.

You can also use the viewport meta tag to control the layout of your web or hybrid app on a mobile device. For example, you can use the layout attribute to set the width of the content area and the height of the sidebar. Based on the different devices you're optimizing, you can choose the specific pixel dimensions to use in your codes.

Get a professional, mobile-friendly website

A recent publication from Statista showed that there are over 6 billion mobile users worldwide. This very large number suggests the need for businesses to optimize their operations for mobile users. Finding the right talent to build a responsive site is the first step.

Upwork’s Talent Marketplace™ is a platform that connects businesses with independent professionals from all over the world. Website owners can post projects or tasks they need help with, and independent professionals can apply to work on those projects. Independent web design experts can help you build a custom site using website builders and content management systems like WordPress and WIX.

Search Talent Marketplace to find a web designer. Once you find a designer you're interested in working with, you can view their profile to learn more about their skills and experience. You can also message the designer to start chatting about your project. In addition, web developers can leverage Upwork services to find web design jobs by connecting with businesses and employers on the platform.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.