Last updated on January 11th, 2023
The last decade has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the popularity of smartphones, and subsequently in m-commerce. It is interesting to see how the online retail industry will work upon as the number of people getting connected to the Internet through a smartphone is growing every day. There are a host of other reasons as well. So m-commerce will be a force to be reckoned with, and companies need to be master strategies in website optimization.
In the US and Europe, it is estimated that m-commerce will grow at the rate of 40% till 2020. In the UAE and Dubai, too, m-commerce is definitely the future as online retailers will dominate here as well. With this, there are many things that one needs to understand here for perfect results. And unquestionably, having a mobile-friendly website is the most important of them all.
In this post, I will discuss 8 challenges that come on the way to website optimization for mobile devices. For companies, these are needed to be taken care of for performing to the optimum.
Here Are The Top 8 Challenges Of Website Optimization For Mobile Devices
01. Mobile Usability
Since the screen size of a mobile website differs from that of a desktop, the users need to resize their screens to view the content continuously. Creating website designs that suit every screen size is one of the challenges that website developers face. Simply put, making a responsive mobile website that responds to the type of screen a visitor is using, is essential. Mobile optimized websites fit the screen size on which they are being viewed.
Navigation is the main reason here for the users, which needs to be considered by businesses. If the visitors are not able to smoothly browse through your site, chances are they will leave it soon. Yes, this is the pain area businesses always work on. And they consider different ways to reduce the bounce rate.
While responsive is one key to the factors here, the other two are mobile subdomain and content served dynamically to the users. A mobile subdomain is all about creating a mobile website by adding ‘m’ in the address of a desktop website. But this practice is nearly obsolete as the responsive nature of a mobile site serves pretty much the same purpose.
Dynamically served content is all about serving different content to users/search engines, depending on the device. This can make the content look good, appropriate according to the requirement of a visitor who regularly wants to see a particular type of content like news. This makes for a perfect experience and one which we all look forward to.
No business can afford to avoid mobile compatible website today because nearly half of web traffic worldwide is mobile. As per the Statista, in the 2nd quarter of 2019, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 48.91% of the Internet traffic worldwide.
02. Mobile Speed
This is yet another challenge that can be addressed for website optimization. As partly discussed above, there are enough reasons for a person to leave a website or mobile site. And slow loading is one of them. We see websites that load in the blink of an eye even with heavy content. So, you should also come up with such a mobile site for a better user experience.
With bandwidth not a big problem in most countries around the world, the end-users of a mobile website do not buy the very idea that a web site can be slow. In fact, they have plenty of options. They can switch to a new website for the same content or services in a matter of seconds.
Between 2012 and 2014, the average size of web pages on most sites doubled. And till 2016, it saw a 30% rise. So, based on the stats, anticipate for the next few years.
In simple terms, web page optimization is needed for improved website loading speed. You can’t even think of competing with your competitors if your site contains graphics and videos to load slower. So, give yourself every chance of reaching the top by having a mobile website that loads quickly. Make sure that you run a mobile app test for your website to check whether or not it loads fast on a mobile device for the users.
03. Optimizing For Mobile-First Index
In 2016, an announcement came from Google that shook the companies worldwide. It called for a radical change for all the businesses in their approach. This was termed as a mobile-first index for the fact that Google started to look for the mobile websites of a domain as more traffic was generated on this version than the desktop one.
While Google bots still see the content of desktop and mobile site differently, their criteria to rank websites has changed. They now prefer websites having a fully responsive and mobile version.
It is, therefore, imperative for the companies to have a mobile app if they don’t want website optimization. You can even take mobile app test on software such as pCloudy to check the performance of your mobile app. Or, they can’t make their websites fully compatible with Google’s standards quickly enough.
They can make things work through their app. With Google’s mobile bots now not able to index a site when specific resources are not available, this is high time for companies to invest mobile-first indexing for best results.
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04. Think Small
There are several features for which you need to think while developing a mobile design. And, that should be small, not big. It’s not because of the small screen of smartphones, but the reason is that smartphones are not as powerful as desktops. For a fully optimized mobile site that runs fast, you need to cut all the clutter that we usually see on desktop websites.
Cutting down the clutter means reducing some of the content. This is hard for the owner of the mobile websites. With little space, they need to offer information required to showcase their product. Startups and SMEs need to rethink their strategies in this concern as there are many things that they can drastically change their fortunes here. And a fully optimized mobile website is undoubtedly one of them.
05. Design To Win
It’s a cutthroat marketplace out there as companies make every effort to take the lead over their competitors. Design is certainly one aspect that can make a mobile website optimization to perfection. Visitors of a website and, most importantly, people who are looking to buy a product think of design as something significant.
It is a common notion that design can make us look at a product differently. For example, if you are looking for a product related to interior designing, like wallpaper. You visit two websites, and one of them offers exquisite design and a great theme to look at. While the other one with an average design and layout. You will go for the one with a better design. It is in the subconscious of our minds that better design means the right product.
For a mobile site, the design is vital for making things perfect for any venture. People make a negative judgment for a product if they find the design less flattering. A beautifully designed website can put a business in the driver’s seat in terms of a maximum number of eyeballs and good sales figure too. Besides, you should also pay heed to graphic designs. Get them designed by a professional graphic designer.
06. Help From Social Media Platforms
In this day and age, if a company takes social media platforms lightly, chances are it will be a blow to the webpage optimization of their mobile site. This is because businesses share the majority of content and blog through social media. Whether you use mobile apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, or platforms like Facebook or Twitter, without them, reaching out to masses becomes tough.
If you want to succeed in this area, you need to be specific here. Don’t just go after the bandwagon to make an impact on every popular social media platform. This will make your task tough to make a solid impression on all the platforms. You should choose only appropriate or relevant platforms for your product, ensuring that you’re on the right path.
You may think that the last point will limit your reach to potential customers. But if you think deeply, this strategy is more appropriate. To reach 1 million people is not how you can sell maximum products. But targeting only one hundred thousand people that can yield you high sales figure is what you should be aiming for.
07. Test Your Website
If you think that there is nothing you need to test after website optimization, this may prove you wrong. There are many factors that you need to consider, Google’s mobile-friendly tool being the most important. Before you go the overhaul of your current mobile site, try this tool. It will give you a snapshot about what exactly you need here to come out triumphant when it comes to a great-looking website for mobile devices.
Using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool will be an eye-opener for you. If you think that your current site is perfect in terms of design, layout, and content, and is fully optimized, this tool is exactly what you need. You will get a summary of all the essential aspects, including the areas of improvement. This is like a dedicated testing tool for businesses to identify the needs to make their site great.
08. Customer Feedback
Last but not least, the customer’s feedback is essential for improving things as per the users’ expectations. There are several examples when website owners took customers to feedback positively and made their websites mobile-friendly. In spite of trying everything your hard effort may go in vain if your visitors, who are your potential customers, don’t approve of some aspects of your site, all your hard effort will go in vain.
Comments on your blogs are critical, but if a person finds it hard to find that section, every effort behind coming up with the blog will be wasted. Too much scrolling is also not what you need here, as not everyone is fond of scrolling right till the bottom of the page. If they can find relevant information on the top of the page, it is perfect for them. So, offer all these facilities to your visitors. Their feedback will help you mold your entire site according to their preferences.
If you’re based out of Dubai and having challenges in optimizing your website for mobile devices, consult a web design company in Dubai or follow the ideas mentioned earlier.
Final Word
I’ve tried my best to outline the challenges of website optimization for mobile devices as well as their solutions. These are needed to be taken care of for making your mobile website more user-friendly by optimizing for mobile devices. However, if you still have any issues or want to know more about any aspect, you’re welcome. Please use the comments section below in this concern.
