Did you know that 83.72% of the world’s population own a smartphone?

Mobile-friendly websites are the future of web design. Although some people still use desktops, they don’t come close to the number using smartphones.

It’s critical for a small business to invest in designing mobile-friendly websites. This is because it enables your customers to access the same information they usually would on a desktop, on their phone.

This increases your customer base and heightens their responsiveness to your services.

However, mobile website design may not be an easy task to pull off. You must include several fundamental design features to ensure your website is effective.

Read on for seven tips on designing mobile-friendly websites for small businesses.

1. Simplify the Design of Your Site

Whether a single page or unlimited page website, users want a platform they can easily work with. Designing mobile-friendly websites for small businesses requires you to consider every consumer.

Not everyone can navigate a complicated site, and this may discourage them from accessing it. Using the mobile-first approach is advisable. It allows you to design a site from a mobile phone's perspective instead of a desktop.

This measure simplifies the design and makes it easy for anyone to use. Avoid including frames, tables, and other formatting types that some consumers are unfamiliar with.

2. Use Large and Legible Fonts

Font size is an essential aspect to consider when designing mobile-friendly websites for small businesses. It should be at least 14 pixels to ensure your customers can read your content easily without zooming in.

This size may initially seem bigger on a desktop than a mobile phone. In this case, you may need to increase it to about 16 pixels or more.

A good business website designer must also know what font to use. Some fonts lose their legibility once italicized or when in bold.

You should test out how each font looks in these states and also if you can read them on different-sized screens.

3. Minimize the Amount of Typing Required

Not all people find typing on a smartphone easy. You should therefore ensure that your website doesn’t require a lot of typing to access your service.

Having to type everything may be a frustrating experience, and the customer might even decide to quit it altogether.

You can replace user text entries with buttons or dropdowns, which enable users to select what they need without having to type it.

You ought to make your website's navigation easy so everyone can access it. Mobile users may not have the privilege of a mouse or keyboard. Therefore, come up with ways that make it easy for them to use text input.

4. Avoid Large and Long Headlines

When picking font size, you should also consider the screen size. A large font means your headline is also too large.

A mobile phone's screen is smaller than a desktop, so a large headline will take up a lot of space on the screen. A user will have to scroll excessively before they can access the content on the website.

A very long headline may also have the same effect. Keep your headlines as short as possible and use the right font size when designing mobile-friendly websites. This action enables your audience to read through the content with ease.

5. Use Creative Navigation Placement

Before designing a small business website, you must have done some research. This will direct you on what your consumers want and prefer in a website.

Optimizing a mobile design requires establishing the right position to place your navigation menu. Some users prefer to see fast-changing content; in this case, it’s advisable to place the menu below the main content.

This measure allows the headlines and content to be visible without any obstruction. You should, in turn, consider placing the navigation menu at the top of the page if your audience wants immediate access to the content.

6. Limit Page Size and Weight

The file size of a page affects the loading time and the duration required for a mobile crawler to evaluate. It’s best to use clean and light pages on a mobile site since this reduces the website loading speed.

Ensure all your page sizes are below 25 kilobytes. This makes downloading easier, and a consumer will go through the evaluation in a short time.

You can reduce the size and weight of a page by minification, JavaScript, caching, and image optimization. Further, keep in mind the amount of content on a page, as too much may bring about page clutter.

Distribute your content evenly and avoid placing too many words in one space. This action will enable your user to access content without scrolling too much.

7. Use Effective Pop-Ups Placement

Pop-ups may not affect the user experience on a desktop. However, pop-ups may be very frustrating to deal with on a smartphone if they interrupt content reading.

If wrongly placed, they are a distraction and may divert your consumer’s attention to their content. However, you can put them in a way that doesn’t obstruct the content on your website, for example, on the top corner of your page.

When designing mobile-friendly websites for small businesses, you want all attention to be on your product or service. To do this, you ought to check where the pop-ups are and ensure they are not diverting your customer’s focus.

Tips on Designing Mobile-Friendly Websites for Small Businesses

Designing mobile-friendly websites for small businesses is essential if you want your business to benefit fully from the internet and mobile phones.

For it to be effective, you need to have the right website design tools that are friendly to the user and make it easy to go about. It’s not possible to use the same design on a desktop and a mobile phone.

You should therefore make sure you know what will be effective for your mobile website.

Schedule a free consultation with us today to turn your website into a marketing tool.