Mobile optimization for information websites: why it is important

Modern users are used to receiving online services anywhere and anytime. That is why mobile gadgets exist, which have totally changed the businesses approach to promoting their offers. However, it is not enough to rely on the fact that users will visit the resource – the company’s own website must meet the requirements of mobile web content adaptation.

Mobile website optimization – is the process of setting up a web resource in such a way that it is displayed correctly and conveniently on personal devices. Today, when mobile traffic becomes the main Internet access source for many users, this optimization is a key factor for any website success.

Why search engine optimization of websites puts such a great emphasis on mobile adaptation – the examples.

In recent years, the users number accessing the Internet via mobile devices has grown significantly. According to various studies more than 50% of all Internet queries are made via smartphones and tablets. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you lose great traffic volume and in as a result – the potential clients.

Mobile optimization allows you to create a convenient and intuitive interface on small screens of mobile devices. Such a process includes the adaptation of fonts, buttons, images and other website elements.

If a resource is not adapted for mobile devices, users will face difficulties with navigation. A modern user will not try to figure out why a website does not display well on their smartphone – they will just go to another one. Obviously, this increases the number of bounces and negatively affects the audience’s loyalty to the brand.

In 2015 Google introduced mobile-first indexing algorithms. Search engines primarily analyze the mobile version of a website when determining its position in the search results. If a resource is not adapted (or poorly adapted) for gadgets, this serves as a signal to the system – the page simply gets the far positions of the results. The chances that users will find your website are rapidly decreasing.

Mobile website optimization is important not only for attracting traffic but also for ensuring high conversion rates. Easy access to information, convenient navigation, fast page loading – all this significantly increases the likelihood that the user will perform the action you want: subscribe to news, leave a request or share content.

In most cases, mobile devices use cellular networks. As a rule, they have lower data transfer speeds than classic landline connections. If a corporate website (or any other type of website) is not optimized for this mode of operation, large and heavy elements of the site can greatly slow down the loading of pages. This is guaranteed to cause frustration among users – they will leave the resource before it is fully loaded.

Adaptive design – is a comprehensive approach to page development. It is aimed specifically at the user experience, ensuring convenient, efficient use of the resource on any mobile device. At the same time, the developer faces an important task – not only to create an adapted version, but also to maintain the functionality and aesthetic appearance of the website.

Proper mobile website optimization includes the following points:

1. Use of Media Queries. Media queries – are the key point from which responsive design is formed. Media Queries allow to change styles depending on the characteristics of the device: screen diagonal, orientation, resolution. It is media queries that determine how a website will look on end users’ devices.
2. Fluid Grid Layout – is a flexible grid technology. Using it instead of fixed element sizes allows the page to scale correctly on screens of different sizes. The rejection of hard-coded pixels in favor of a percentage ratio, “em” or “rem” units provides design flexibility.
3. Responsive content. Images should be resized depending on the diagonal of the screen. This approach does not overload the site with large files on small displays, while not losing quality on large-format matrices. To do this, the “srcset” attribute can be used in HTML – it specifies different versions of visual content for different conditions.
4. Flexboxes and CSS Grid. This is an example of modern technologies for creating flexible, responsive layouts that automatically adjust to different sizes of gadget displays. Flexbox allows to create elements that dynamically change their order and size depending on the available space on the screen. Grid forces complex networks with a clear division of page structural components.
5. A different approach to navigation. The mobile version of a website is critically dependent on convenience. For example, instead of the classic horizontal menu, a mobile version of the drop-down list or hamburger menu can be used. This element is revealed when clicked and hidden while inactive. This significantly saves space on small screens without losing functionality.

Adaptive design – is not just about technical execution, but also about paying attention to user experience. It is important to keep in mind that users often perceive the typical moments for developers differently: navigation, loading speed on mobile devices. The concept of convenience is individual for everyone, so the interface should be intuitive and convenient for a wide audience. User experience (UX) assessment is used for this purpose.

Of course, it is extremely important to test on different devices and browsers. Tools such as Google Chrome Developer Tools allow to view pages on different screen formats and test them in real time.

Other popular tools for testing responsive design and other aspects of mobile resources are:

• BrowserStack: allows to test websites on real mobile devices and browsers without the need to have physical devices.
• Sauce Labs: an analog of BrowserStack, offers a wide range of tests on real mobile devices through the cloud.
• TestComplete: an automation testing system for mobile applications and websites for Android and iOS, supports various types of tests.
• Appium: a popular complex for automated testing of mobile applications and websites on Android and iOS.
• Katalon Studio: extensive capabilities for automated testing of mobile versions of websites.

The choice of tools depends on the requirements of a particular project and, of course, the budget. However, the use of such testers in modern development is mandatory. First of all, it saves time. After all, these tools significantly reduce the likelihood of errors on mobile devices.

The size of the target web resource is a critical point in the development of mobile versions of websites. To increase the loading speed on mobile devices, the principle of reducing the amount of code and content is used.

This can be achieved by:

• compression of images;
• use of modern formats: WebP, AVIF;
• minimizing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML;
• removing unnecessary spaces and comment fields in the code.

An important aspect of content loading optimization is caching. Static elements (images, styles, and scripts) can be cached on the user’s side, which will significantly speed up subsequent downloads. Using Service Workers allows to provide offline access and further optimize caching.

The next step is to optimize page rendering. The use of adaptive design that takes into account different screens of mobile devices allows to ensure the correct display of the resource without unnecessary requests to the server. At the same time, the loading time is reduced by several times.

Equally important is the choice of low-latency servers and the use of CDN (Content Delivery Network). This is necessary for faster content delivery. Thanks to CDN, page loading time is reduced regardless of the user’s distance from the server.

Progressive web applications or PWAs are an interesting solution in the mobile website segment. They are a website or application that looks like native mobile software. But there is one important difference – the application works through a browser. It is a kind of tandem of web and mobile technologies packed in a common wrapper.

PWA features:

• combining the strengths of web technologies and mobile applications;
• fast operation even in conditions of unstable connection;
• the possibility of offline access;
• behavior of a typical mobile application: a shortcut on the home screen, push notifications.

PWAs automatically adapt to different screen sizes. They take up little space on the device because they do not require installation. PWAs significantly improve the performance and usability of mobile versions of websites. They eliminate the need to develop separate applications.