By now, you know how important it is to have a mobile-friendly website to enhance user experience and improve your SEO efforts. While this is true, you may still think of mobile-friendliness as just ensuring your web pages resize properly when viewed on a mobile device. 

However, creating a mobile-friendly site goes beyond responsiveness on different devices. It also applies to creating mobile-friendly content. 

If you want to provide your customers with an exceptional experience, you need to look at mobile-friendliness comprehensively. It needs to focus on your customer’s overall experience when they visit your website. 

1. Make Your Introduction Count

 Mobile devices have much smaller screens than desktops. 

Since you don’t have as much real estate to convey your message, you must consider the initial information a mobile visitor will encounter. 

Usually, a mobile visitor will only see a few paragraphs (max) before having to scroll to see more. This leaves you the introduction to convey the most important information, hook the reader, and make them want to scroll for more. 

Most visitors spend three minutes or fewer on a website. 

Since you have limited space to pique a visitor’s interest, you must focus on creating a strong introduction. Avoid unnecessary information and get to the point as quickly as possible. Be sure to share the most relevant information related to your page’s topic first. This will provide instant value for visitors. 

2. Write Short Paragraphs 

Getting a reader’s attention is difficult when you have “walls” of text or lengthy paragraphs on a desktop. This becomes even more problematic on mobile devices that have smaller screens. 

You can eliminate the need for visitors to scroll and ensure they consume more of your content by creating short, concise paragraphs that include just a few lines. A smart option is to express just one idea per paragraph. Try not to exceed five lines.  

With more than five lines, the paragraph will be more than an inch deep. This is too much text for most readers. If you want mobile-friendly content, it’s something you need to avoid. 

If you have over five lines, your paragraph will be over an inch long, which is too much for most readers. This is particularly the case when trying to create mobile-friendly content. 

 

3. Consider How People Consume Content

How people consume content on a desktop computer differs from a mobile device. According to eye-tracking research, webpage visitors usually scan phone screens and sites in unique patterns. All these should be considered when creating content. 

Some of the patterns followed include:

  • Bypassing pattern: The first words of the line are skipped when several lines of text include the same word or words. 
  • Marking pattern: Focuses on a single location as they scroll through the page. This is more common on mobile devices than desktops. 
  • Commitment pattern: A user reads all words on the webpage, but research has shown this is not common. 
  • Layer-cake pattern: Scans the headings and subheadings while skipping the text in between. 
  • Spotted pattern: Skips large blocks of text while scanning it for something specific. Usually, the person searches for an image, call to action (CTA), or link. 

4. Offer Highlights or a Summary 

Most people on mobile devices are limited when it comes to what they can see. They want pertinent information to be displayed immediately. 

A method to accomplish this is by offering a summary before the remainder of your content. The summary must highlight the key takeaways from the content the person is about to read. 

When you create a summary, you provide the information your readers are looking for at the top of the webpage. You also highlight the content that may help you get social shares and links. 

5. Eliminate Unneeded Words

It doesn’t matter if you create content for mobile or desktop users. You should keep it straightforward and concise. 

A good way improve your mobile content is to eliminate unnecessary words by using the Flesch Reading Ease formula. You can find online tools that check your text and provide you with a readability score. 

Some of the things that are considered in this formula include:

  • Length of sentences (measured by total words)
  • Average syllables per word

The test is beneficial when creating mobile-friendly content. 

If you want to get a good score using this method, you should keep the following in mind when creating your content:

  • Shorten the sentences: Don’t write sentences that are too hard to understand or that are confusing and long. 
  • Avoid using hard or difficult words: Using words with four or more syllables is considered hard to comprehend. 
  • Remove unneeded determiners and modifiers: Eliminate all “fluff” and “filler” in your content. 
  • Avoid repeating yourself: Avoid being redundant or using similar phrases or words describing the same idea or concept. 
  • Don’t provide too much detail: Don’t overcomplicate or over-explain the message you want to convey. 

6. Add Video and Images 

Videos and images help to break up your text and make your content easier to digest. 

Be sure to add supporting images throughout the content where and when needed. This adds separation between text and provides a visual component. 

Research has shown that visuals are processed as much as 600 times faster than text alone. This means you can help your readers understand your content better when they use visuals rather than just text. 

Video can also help enhance your content. It’s been found that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from businesses they support. 

Images and videos also provide more changes to show up in the rich search results. 

7. Use High Contrast Colors 

If you want people to read what you write, you need to make the content easy to read. 

For example, you need to use a font that’s bigger than 32 points to ensure readability on a mobile device. It’s also possible to increase readability by using high-contrast colors for information accessibility and aesthetics. 

When you use high-contrast colors like white text on a black background, it will increase overall readability. Lower contrast colors, like yellow text on a white background, are harder to read. 

Insufficient contrast will pose significant issues for those with color blindness since they can’t distinguish between colors like red and green. Sometimes, low-contrast sensitivity occurs as a person gets older. 

When you leverage high-contrast colors, it will help your text be more effective for a bigger audience. 

8. Keep the Title Short 

The title of your webpage is the reader’s first introduction to the content on your website. It also determines how your page’s title will appear in search engines. 

A few years ago, Google increased the maximum length of the mobile title tag to around 78 characters. It’s also possible for mobile titles to appear on two lines. 

While this is true, search experts agree that page titles must be concise and short and should be displayed on a single line in the mobile search results. To achieve this, make sure titles are short and don’t contain over six words, which is about 70 characters. The shorter your title is, the less your readers must try to understand. 

Also, you need to include your focus keyword at the beginning of the title. This is going to help improve your search ranking and overall discoverability. 

9. Place CTAs Strategically 

When you write copy for on-the-go readers, remember you have limited time to capture their attention. People using mobile devices expect to find what they are looking for quickly. 

If you don’t provide them with what to do next within a few seconds of landing on the site, you will miss all types of conversion opportunities. 

To improve your mobile content, make sure your CTA is at the top of your website. This will help you move readers through your sales funnel. 

The more visually distinct and clear you can make the CTA on your website, the more successful you will be at reaching your end goal. This is especially the case with mobile devices when there isn’t as much space to share your main goals. 

10. Preview Your Content before Publishing 

It is important to preview your content before you publish it. 

However, you may focus more on how the content appears on desktop instead of mobile devices. 

While this gives you another step in the editorial process, previewing how your content appears on mobile devices prevents errors before publishing it. 

Look at how your content will appear to mobile users and find ways to improve it. 

Now You Know How to Improve Your Mobile Content

If you want to appeal to more mobile users, then improving your mobile content is essential. Start with the tips here to make the content easy to read and appealing to your visitors. 

If you are ready to improve the overall mobile experience, let us help. At Small Business SEO, you can count on our team to provide the services and solutions you need, including an improved mobile experience. 

The mobile experience is a huge factor in today’s overall SEO and results. If you haven’t considered this before, now is the time to start.