Have you been browsing websites on your phone recently, only to find that some sites don’t work or seem to be broken, or just look really ugly? If the font is too small, you find links that don’t work or you have to try somehow to zoom in just to find the navigation bar, it’s likely that you’ll just give up in disgust and go looking for another site.
It’s frustrating and can be completely off-putting.
Most practice sites are designed, first and foremost, to look good on a desktop. Up till now this has been ok because most people browsing the internet have used computers.
However, it should come as no surprise that that more and more of us are using our phones to search for information, products and services – in fact recent statistics suggest that smartphones are rapidly overtaking computers as the tool of choice for browsing the internet.
This is great news for businesses, with more and more potential customers and clients looking for just the service you offer. However, if your website is one of those that looks broken or is ugly when viewed on a phone (go ahead, check your site and see), then you’ve got a big problem.
Luckily, re-designing your business website to be mobile responsive can be simply a matter of moving to a more mobile friendly theme. If you’re not technologically savvy you can always find someone who will be able to help you adapt or modify your site. Don’t forget, however, that making your website functionally mobile-responsive and having a well designed mobile site are two different things: the first just means that it (or some parts of it) works on mobile, the second means that it is effective and is more likely to attract and retain customers.
Tips For Making Your Website As Effective As Possible
Google recently published a “best practice” guide for effective mobile-responsive websites, including structure and design elements. These were tested on customers to find the sites that they preferred and were more likely to visit again. More importantly, these site designs and structures were more likely to make users purchase products and services from the site. Elements from the guide included:
- Having a strong “call to action” on the homepage
- Short, clear navigation and menus
- Making the search bar highly visible
- Letting users buy products or services as a guest (rather than making them register)
- Designing forms carefully with a simple and easy to use interface
- Thinking about how your clients or customers might use a page and have the content load in a logical order
- Minimising downloads for users
- Testing your website on a range of different devices to ensure it works well
Interestingly, the users in Google’s study found that using a site that had some desktop-related content and some mobile-responsive content was more confusing and difficult than using a website designed solely for the desktop. This means that if you have a business website and you want to make it as effective as possible you should be targeting the idea of building a fully responsive site.
Attracting and engaging users can be a full time occupation these days, and it can be particularly challenging for small to medium businesses. By ensuring that your website is mobile-responsive and well designed at least you can ensure that you’re providing the very best online platform you can to market and sell your products and services.
Clear Health Media specialises in websites for chiropractors, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals. Schedule a time now for us to discuss your marketing needs and generate more new patients for your practice.
