It’s happened to everyone: you’re looking for a restaurant on the fly and are already in the car with out-of-town clients expecting you to find a great place. Alas, you find one that looks like it will work: good ambiance, positive Yelp! reviews — you click the website to check their menu and see jumbled photos, an inaccessible menu; the site isn’t optimized for mobile. You exit and are onto the next option.
Today, 80 percent of people use mobile to search the web. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, this translates to a direct loss in revenue. So, how do you make your site mobile friendly? Make it visual. Here’s a breakdown.
Homepage
When building your website, visit each of your pages on several devices — iPhones, Window’s phones and Androids — to ensure every page displays correctly. The best way to guarantee that your site relates to your audience, regardless of how they visit your page, is to make your homepage heavily visual. Having bold images on your homepage rather than full text, which can be hard to read on mobile, simplifies the user experience. Use features such as sliding banner ads that offer deals, large images with overlaying text, or simply your tagline in large, bold print. By simplifying the user experience, mobile users will be as likely to use your services as those visiting your site on a desktop.
Blog
According to HubSpot, businesses that blog get 55 percent more visitors. The most popular type of web content comes from blogs, and can lead to sales. Unfortunately, these stats mean there is a lot of content being created, but your audience is drowning in it. Your business has to stand out by only providing the most engaging, actionable content offered by anyone else in your industry … and the best way to do this is through visuals. Whether animated GIFs, a listicle format with accompanied photos, or simply one large header image that demands attention: keep blog posts short and interactive with photos. And don’t forget to link back to your homepage.
Lightboxes, Pop-ups & More
Lightboxes and pop-ups are a great way to gather email addresses and build a strong client list. They also are a great way to display images. When designing your site, use a WordPress plugin like Responsive Lightbox by dFactory to make sure your lightboxes and image galleries are interactive and properly configured, regardless of the device.
Social Media
HubSpot also reports that 40 percent of people respond better to visual information than plain text. When setting up your mobile site, don’t forget to include a feed to your social media accounts. Make sure the social feed displays in a relatable way for mobile users by incorporating correctly scaled, high-res images that command attention. Use a site like Shutterstock to purchase stock images that coincide with each social media post. Posts with accompanied visuals get more attention and convey your message across all platforms.
Videos
Some products are best displayed in video format. Through video, brands achieve direct audience appeal and increase brand awareness and recognition. When using videos on your website, make sure they are directly embedded on your page rather than redirecting to YouTube.