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We have long been aware of how important it is to make your website mobile-friendly to improve both your SEO and user experience. Nevertheless, we frequently associate mobile-friendliness with making sure your web pages resize to fit the screen size of mobile devices.
Being responsive on all devices alone is not enough to define one's mobile friendliness. This is true for producing content that is optimized for mobile devices as well.
Marketers should approach mobile-friendliness as a thorough undertaking, with an emphasis on the overall experience your customers will have when visiting your website, in order to give them the best possible experience.
Here are some of our best recommendations for creating engaging and customer-converting mobile-friendly content to help you make the most of your mobile content efforts.
1. Craft Strong Introductions
Mobile phones are significantly smaller than their desktop counterparts.
The first information that a mobile visitor will see must be taken into consideration, as there is less space available for you to communicate your message.
A smartphone visitor will typically only be able to view a few paragraphs at most before having to scroll down to read more content. This means that the opening paragraph of every webpage should present your most fascinating information to grab the reader's attention and spark their curiosity.
On average, visitors stay on a website for little more than 3 minutes.
Write compelling openings that skip over details and get right to the point. To provide your readers with instant value, start by sharing the most pertinent information about your subject.
2. Break Content Into Short Paragraphs
Long paragraphs can be difficult to capture a reader's attention on a desktop. With a smaller screen mobile phone, this gets harder and harder.
To increase the amount of content you consume, do away with the need to scroll by implementing Jon Ziomek's 1-2-3-4-5 strategy. According to Ziomek, each paragraph should have a single topic that is stated in two to three sentences that occupy no more than four to five lines on the page.
According to Ziomek, a paragraph grows to be longer than an inch at six lines, which is too long for most readers. This is especially true, he adds, when creating material that is mobile-friendly.
When possible, the "Yahoo! Style Guide" recommends even fewer paragraphs. They say that paragraphs should contain no more than one or two ideas and that two to three phrases are frequently sufficient.
3. Consider How a User Consumes Content
On a desktop, users receive content differently than on a mobile device. When creating your content, keep in mind that users of websites and mobile devices read screens in a variety of ways, according to eye-tracking study.
These patterns include the following:
- Bypassing pattern: Skips the first few words of a line when multiple lines of text begin with the same word or phrase.
- Commitment pattern: Reads every word on the webpage, yet research indicates that this is not a usual habit.
- Layer-cake pattern: scans headings and subheadings while skipping typical text in between.
- Marking pattern: Concentrates on one location as they scroll over the page. This is more common on mobile than on desktop.
- Spotted pattern: skips big sections of text in search of something unique. This could include checking for a link, a call to action (CTA), an image, or another type of content.
4. Offer a Summary or Highlights
Mobile users’ attention durations are often restricted. They want that essential information to be displayed right away.
One way to accomplish this is to include a summary before the rest of the content. Your summary should focus on significant takeaways from the upcoming content.
By writing a summary, you not only provide visitors with the information they seek at the top of your webpage, but you also highlight content that may lead to links and social shares.
5. Eliminate Unnecessary Words
Whether you're writing for desktop or mobile, keep your content clear and plain.
In reality, the Yoast SEO plugin uses the Flesch Reading Ease formula to assess the readability of content written on the WordPress platform. The Flesch Reading Ease formula determines the readability of a text.
To determine the text’s score, the formula looks at:
- The average length of your sentences (measured by the number of words).
- The average number of syllables per word.
- This test can also be applied to creating mobile-friendly content.
To achieve a higher grade on the Flesch Reading Ease test, ensure that you consider the following when creating content:
Shorten your sentences: Avoid sentences that are overly long, unclear, or difficult to understand.
Avoid using complex terms: Words containing four or more syllables are considered difficult to understand.
Remove any extraneous modifiers and determiners: Remove "filler" or "fluff" stuff.
Do not repeat yourself: Avoid redundancy by using comparable words or phrases to explain the same topic.
Do not provide excessive detail: Do not over explain or complicate the message you are attempting to express.
6. Add Images/Videos
Images or videos break up your text and make it easier to understand.
Include additional photos throughout your article as needed. This not only separates your text but also provides a visual component.
According to research, images are taken up to 600 times faster than text, thus using visuals instead of text can help your readers better absorb your content.
Video can also enhance your material. In fact, 54% of consumers would want to see more video material from a company they support.
Videos and photos also provide extra chances to appear in rich search results.
7. Use High Contrast Colors
To promote readership, make your information easy to read.
To ensure reading on a mobile device, your font size should be larger than 32 points. You can also utilize high contrast colors to improve the aesthetics and accessibility of information.
Using strongly contrasting colors, such as white lettering on a black backdrop, improves readability. Low contrast colors, such as yellow writing against a white backdrop, are difficult to read.
Individuals with color blindness may have difficulty distinguishing between particular colors, such as red and green, due to a lack of contrast. Low contrast sensitivity becomes increasingly common as people age.
Using high contrast colors will help your text be more successful for a broader range of readers.
8. Keep Your Title Short
Your title serves as the reader's first exposure to the upcoming information. It also impacts how your webpage's title appears in search results.
A few years ago, Google raised the maximum length of the mobile title tag to approximately 78 characters. Mobile titles can also span two lines.
Regardless of these two variables, search experts believe that page names should be brief and simple, and appear on one line in mobile search results.
To do this, keep titles short and sweet, no more than six words or approximately 70 characters. The shorter your title, the less your readers will have to digest and understand.
In addition, to boost your search ranking and discoverability, include your focus keyword at the beginning of your title.
9. Strategically Place Your CTAs
When creating copy for on-the-go readers, keep in mind that you have a limited time to attract their attention. Mobile users expect to find information quickly.
If you do not give them with the next action to do within a few seconds of viewing your site, you will miss out on conversions.
Place your CTA at the top of your website to help readers navigate your sales funnel.
The more visually obvious and explicit your CTA on your website is, the better your chances of achieving your final goal.
This is especially true for smartphones, since there is less area to express your core objectives.
10. Preview Before You Click Publish
It is great practice to preview the content before publishing.
However, we frequently consider how our material would seem on a desktop rather than a mobile device.
While this adds another step to your editorial process, getting an accurate preview of how your material will appear on mobile helps to prevent problems before publishing.
Consider how the content will appear to your mobile reader and look for possibilities to:
- Better break up your paragraphs.
- Add relevant subheadings.
- Identify areas where you may want to add supporting images.
- See where more whitespace should be added, etc.
A second check on mobile also protects your content from being published with errors, which can cause your visitors to see your brand as less trustworthy and authoritative.
Whether you're creating mobile-friendly content from the start or updating current material, keep the aforementioned recommendations in mind to boost conversions and improve the user experience.
High-quality content allows you to express your message, educate your clients, and persuade them to buy your product or service over your competition.
Stand out in the competitive landscape with strategic, well-executed content across all devices.
If you are looking for the best content writing strategy or digital marketing services, Contact us today!
