Optimizing for Mobile Use With a Web Grader

Mobile technology use has been growing every?year. As more of us turn to?smartphones and tablets to access and engage, businesses need to make sure that their online marketing efforts can support the user experience on mobile devices.?One way to determine where you stand, what?s working and more importantly what isn?t, is by using a web grader on your site. A web grader can analyze the user experience on your site across multiple devices and platforms and can then give you insight into the best steps to take to optimize your site for mobile access.

What Is Mobile Optimization

Optimizing your?site for mobile consists of looking at site design, structure, page speed and more to make sure you?re not losing mobile users who visit your site. Some elements such as SEO best practices translate directly to the mobile space without any changes. If your site is already well optimized for search engines that will also carry over to your user?s mobile experience.

Other elements that need to be addressed to optimize your site for mobile include page load speeds and images. Because of hardware and connectivity issues, page load speed is a crucial element for mobile users. Beyond optimizing images, you?ll want to minimize code, leverage browser caching and reduce time-consuming redirects.

In the early days of mobile, designers would just block code like CSS, javascript or images. Today, this is no longer necessary. All of these elements are crucial to helping Google determine if your site is responsive or uses a different mobile solution. It ends up being critical to how Google assigns SEO page rank.?What should be avoided, regarding mobile design, is Flash and pop-ups. Flash is not available on some devices and pop-ups can be difficult to close on a small screen and can result in a high bounce rate due to user frustration.

Another tip is to design for the ?fat finger.? Touch screen navigation can lead to accidental clicks if buttons are too small, or in the path of a finger that?s trying to get a page to scroll.?Finally, remember that users are working with a smaller screen space when searching on a mobile device. To rank higher on SERPs be as concise as possible in terms of titles and meta descriptions.

Using A Web Grader To Fine Tune Your Mobile Site

A web grader can help you to determine what you?ll need to focus on regarding optimizing your site for mobile. For example, Hubspot?s Web Grader tool will not only examine and grade your website to help analyze its effectiveness, it also looks at your site’s mobile responsiveness. When analyzing data, from page load times to metadata, image tags and redirects can help direct you to areas that can be edited to improve your user?s mobile experience.

Web Graders can also uncover other common mobile optimization mistakes like responsive design capabilities and blocked javascript, images and mobile only 404 error messages.? Many designers or businesses have no idea that while their websites display effectively when viewed from a desktop, they may in fact load error messages when viewed from a mobile device making them ineffective for users accessing from a smartphone or tablet. A good web grader will allow for cross-platform testing and grade based on compatibility.

Your website and mobile presence are a fluid, constantly evolving marketing tool. Working with a web grader can help you to keep on top of any shortcomings and give you the information you?ll need to create the optimal user experience! Get started optimizing for mobile experience through the Web Grader. Just click the button on this page!

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, call-to-action mapping and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and traditional media allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.