The number of people who own smartphones and tablets is growing at a phenomenal rate. As a matter of fact, the industry saw a 70 percent growth in 2012 alone.
Image via flickr by Desert Rivers Audubon
That’s why your blog has to cater to a mobile audience if you want to be successful. Take a look at these four ways to do that.
Automatically Redirect Mobile Users to Your Mobile Site
According to Miranda Miller of Search Engine Watch, 72 percent of consumers want mobile-friendly sites. And, they don’t want to have to do a lot of extra clicking to get to it. That’s why you should set your blog up to automatically redirect mobile users to your mobile site. This creates the best experience for your readers. It’s also pretty easy to program, especially if you install a WordPress plugin to do it for you.
Limit Advertising
Keep your mobile visitors in mind when visiting your site. Nothing will drive visitors away quicker than a full-screen pop-up when they’re visiting your site on their new smartphone. Anchor the ads at the bottom and give them the option to close the ad. Blocking the content in favor of an advertisement is a great way to completely lose blog visitors.
Create a List of Priorities and Design Accordingly
You have a lot less screen space to work with when creating a mobile version of your blog, so you have to pick and choose the most important things to include. If your readers are looking for information about the new Blackberry Z10, you want them to be able to easily access that information. Essentially, your mobile site should be simple so that people can easily find the content they want without having to do a lot of scrolling, zooming, or switching pages.
Some examples of blogs with good mobile optimization include Zappos, Etsy, Food Network, and ESPN. Try them out to see for yourself. They have picked their most important features and included them on their mobile sites.
Make Sure Your Mobile Site Loads Fast
The number one reason mobile readers leave a blog is if they have to wait too long for it to load. Your mobile site should be as basic as possible with very few images and no items that take a long time to load. Most people don’t have 4G LTE speeds yet, so this is still a major factor for your mobile site. According to KISSmetrics, people are only willing to wait for a page to load for six to ten seconds. After that, they leave the page and look for the information they want somewhere else. This shows why a fast load time is so important.
There are a lot more reasons why you should make your blog cater to a mobile audience. However, the ones mentioned here are the most important. Have you made a mobile version of your blog yet? If not, you better get started.
