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10 ways to draw more traffic to your mobile site

Mobile sites often have different characteristics and requirements than traditional desktop/laptop browser-oriented sites. Learn ten ways to attract traffic to your mobile site for better customer engagement.

A person looking at a mobile website on a smartphone.
Image: Anna Shvets/Pexels

With the ubiquity of mobile devices, websites tailored towards mobile users are essential to drive business operations, attract new customers and users, and ensure company growth and success.

SEE: iCloud vs. OneDrive: Which is best for Mac, iPad and iPhone users? (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Many users rely on certain applications like Instagram, Snapchat and fantasy football almost exclusively from their mobile devices, so ensuring your site is modeled after other apps which work well is a good strategy. Here are ten tips for getting the most from your website to bring in the best possible audience.

Top 10 mobile site traffic tips

1. Ensure the site is appealing to small screens

The site should be vertically optimized — meaning users can easily scroll down — and arranged so that the necessary content is easily accessible on the screen. You don’t want users to have to zoom in or expand the display to interact with the site, as that becomes tiresome quite quickly. Avoid the use of tabs or hypertext links, as those are better suited for larger screens.

2. Develop a clean, intuitive and responsive interface

Your site interface should make it easy to navigate, find and return results, and complete actions in a timely manner. Traditional browser users can just hit refresh or F5 to reload a sluggish page, but mobile users often have to go back and then forward or reload the site entirely, so it should return the results they need in rapid order.

3. Use content prioritization to display the most necessary elements

All the primary functions of your site should be immediately available for users, with the most important and/or frequently used functions displayed near the top. Lesser used functions should still be on the main page, but consider moving them closer to the bottom.

4. Make the mobile site comparable to the traditional site

Where possible, design the mobile site to look as close as possible to the traditional browser-based site. Use the same images, fonts and colors so the site remains familiar to the users and they can easily recognize either version of the site.

5. Utilize native mobile device features

Having local and personalized search functionality on a mobile site that can take advantage of a smartphone’s geolocation service can help users more quickly find what they need. Your site should be able to leverage functions such as phone calls, text messages and the camera to interact with users where applicable.

6. Be minimalistic with data

Users who pay for data will appreciate your mobile site only presenting or processing the bare minimum of data. This includes images, which should be optimized for size — 1Mb or less is a strong suggestion — and configured to use “lazy loading” to only display images as needed. Try to use cached pages to make the site accessible while offline as well.

6. Choose and use your ads carefully

Ads are necessary in many situations, but don’t overdo it. Use tasteful, non-intrusive ads that don’t inhibit the user’s ability to access and utilize the website. There’s nothing that drives users away more quickly than ads which prevent them from achieving their objective or even redirect them to another page.

Rely on audio and video sparingly. It can be unbelievably frustrating when an unexpected video starts playing with loud, blaring music or voice dialogues. These can startle unexpected users.

7. Follow proven methods for content marketing

If your site contains content — as opposed to simple functions like booking reservations or ordering merchandise — this content marketing guide by Kinsta is a great way to get oriented to content marketing strategies that will help drive traffic to your site.

8. Utilize email and social media marketing to promote your site

According to Kinsta, there are 4.3 billion email users, which is approximately half the population of the world. Email marketing is a must to get your site promoted, but go easy on the frequency of messages lest users become irritated from too many notifications. Engage in promotions via email with seasonal and/or holiday themes to keep content tailored to current events.

It’s also essential that your business uses the most popular social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to promote your mobile site.

9. Use Google Search Console to measure successful keywords

Along with other types of insights, Google Search Console can help you determine what keywords work in bringing users to your mobile site. Local customers can be attracted by the use of location-based keywords.

10. Update content frequently to keep it fresh and useful

Review, update, remove, and add new content and functions to ensure the site remains as useful and relevant to users as it can, thereby ensuring their continued engagement with it.

If you’re in the mood for more tips, check out these recent articles on learning social media marketing and a better video marketing strategy via VidTags.