We’re all reading, working, buying, and learning more and more on our mobile devices as we run around with our busy lives. Rarely are we on our desktop computers anymore. This is why it’s important create mobile friendly content to reach the growing number of mobile users in your local area.
As mobile users ourselves, we know how frustrating it can be when we come across a website that didn’t take into consideration responsive web design. The good news is it’s much easier than you might think to create mobile friendly content for your website. There are small, but very critical areas where you need to focus to ensure that your content is optimized for mobile visitors so they can easily access and interact with your website.
Here are five important areas to consider when creating mobile-friendly content for your mobile site.
GIVE A SUMMARY OR SUCCINCT HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CONTENT
It is very important to give a short summary or highlights of your content so that mobile visitors can quickly get what they’re looking for. Most importantly, this should be complementary to your content. It should not substitute the main content or take away from it in any way. This is why you need to ensure that you’re properly balancing your content by providing just enough information for your mobile visitors to get a quick understanding of what’s being discussed before they move on with other parts of the website.
One way to do this is to create a bullet point or numbered summary of what is included on the rest of the mobile page. This is a great way for site visitors to quickly scan your content and determine if it’s something that they want to check out.
CRAFT INTRODUCTIONS FOR MOBILE TRAFFIC
Because the mobile version of your content is so much smaller on a mobile device, your introductions must be short, to the point, and engaging. You’ve got to entice mobile readers to keep reading!
On a mobile device, users will only see a couple of paragraphs at most before they have to scroll down for more information.
Get to the point quickly, starting with the most relevant information related to your product or service to provide immediate value to your users.
MAKE PARAGRAPHS SHORT FOR MOBILE FRIENDLY CONTENT
When users visit your mobile site, the last thing they want to dive into is a sea of text. The space between words gives readers a visual break and keeps them from feeling overwhelmed with too much information.
Think of the spaces as breaths for a mobile-friendly website.
Musicians often say that “the music happens between the notes.” This is a great way to think about creating content for a website that is mobile-friendly.
Keep your paragraphs really short, typically just 2-3 sentences long. Think of it as content poetry. It will look and sound better when you don’t add too many details.
STEP BACK AND THINK ABOUT HOW THE USER INTERACTS WITH YOUR CONTENT
There are a few ways users read and consume content on their mobile devices. It’s not so much different than how desktop users are reading through your content. How you structure your content is a great indicator of the mobile friendliness of your site.
Here are reading patterns to keep in mind as you create content for mobile devices:
Spotted pattern: when someoneskips big blocks of text and scans for something specific, they’re looking for: a video, a link, or sign-up form.
Bypassing pattern: when mobile users skip the first words of lines that begin with the same text/words.
Marking pattern: this one is more common for mobile users than desktop users. This is when they focus on one place as they scroll through the page on their mobile device. For example, they might keep their eye on the lower half of the page, assuming the link or CTA they’re looking for will be located there.
Layer-cake pattern: when users scan mobile sites for headings and subheadings, skipping all the normal text in between. You know, the way most of us read the news on our mobile phones these days.
Commitment pattern: The very uncommon way for anyone to read anything on their mobile devices. This is when a user actually reads every word on the webpage. For most businesses, this is not the way to go about optimizing content for your mobile-friendly website.
CREATE A TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR MOBILE USERS
A table of contents is great for breaking up large amounts of information on your mobile-friendly website. This will help with the layer-cake pattern mentioned above where your users want to scan for headings and subheadings, skipping all the normal text in between.
The content on the mobile version of your website should have a table of contents. It will help keep mobile users engaged with your content even if it’s long-form. The more links leading to other pages on your mobile site for longer articles, the better chance you’ve got at keeping mobile traffic reading your content all the way through to conversion.
As mobile usage has increased significantly in recent years, it’s become more important than ever to create content that is optimized for this platform. If you follow the tips we have provided above, your chances of converting a customer from their phone or tablet will skyrocket. Think about how people read on their phones and tablets before creating a responsive site. Keep paragraphs short and watch out for the reading patterns mentioned here if you want to keep your customers engaged with your content while browsing your site on their mobile device. If you need help with responsive web design or creating content that is sure to rank well on mobile search results, contact us today.
