Best Practices for Mobile Website Optimisation: A Guide for B2B Businesses

To ensure your website delivers a seamless experience for mobile users, follow these best practices for mobile website optimisation:

1. Use Responsive Design

Responsive design ensures that your website adjusts and displays correctly on all screen sizes, from desktops to mobile phones. This means the layout, images, and content automatically resize and reorganise based on the user’s device. By implementing responsive design, you eliminate the need for separate mobile and desktop versions of your site, providing a consistent user experience across devices.

How to implement responsive design:

• Use flexible grid layouts that adapt to the screen size.
• Ensure images and videos resize automatically.
• Make sure text is legible without users needing to zoom in or scroll horizontally.

2. Optimise Page Load Speed

Page load speed is a critical factor in both user experience and search engine optimisation (SEO). Slow-loading websites frustrate users and result in higher bounce rates. On mobile devices, where users expect fast, seamless experiences, page speed becomes even more crucial.

Tips for improving mobile page speed:

• Compress images: Large image files can slow down page load times. Use image compression tools to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality.
• Minimise code: Simplify and minimise your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code to reduce load times.
• Enable browser caching: Caching stores static files like images and scripts so that returning users can load pages faster.

Using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix can help you identify areas where your site’s performance needs improvement.

3. Simplify Navigation

Mobile users need to be able to navigate your website easily, without having to zoom or scroll excessively. A simplified, mobile-friendly navigation structure enhances user experience and keeps visitors engaged with your content.

Mobile navigation best practices:

• Use a “hamburger” menu (the three horizontal lines) to keep the navigation tidy and easily accessible.
• Limit the number of menu items to avoid overwhelming users.
• Include a prominent search bar to help users find specific information quickly.
• Ensure CTAs (calls-to-action) are clearly visible and easy to tap, guiding users toward conversion points such as contact forms or inquiry submissions.

4. Optimise for Touch

Mobile users interact with websites differently than desktop users—they tap, swipe, and scroll using their fingers. Ensuring your site is optimised for touch can prevent frustration and encourage interaction.

How to optimise for touch:

• Make buttons and links large enough to be tapped easily with a thumb or finger (ideally 44px by 44px).
• Add enough space between clickable elements to avoid accidental taps.
• Ensure forms are easy to complete on mobile by using large input fields and providing auto-suggestions where possible.

5. Use Readable Fonts and Sizing

Small text that’s hard to read on mobile devices can drive users away from your site. Your font size and style should be easy to read without requiring users to zoom in.

Mobile-friendly typography tips:

• Use a minimum font size of 16px for body text.
• Stick to clear, legible fonts such as sans-serif styles (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, or Open Sans).
• Ensure there’s sufficient contrast between text and background for better readability.

6. Prioritise Content Above the Fold

“Above the fold” refers to the portion of the page that is visible to users without scrolling. On mobile, the space above the fold is limited, so it’s essential to display the most important information or calls-to-action here. This encourages users to engage with your site immediately.

What to place above the fold:

• Key messages and value propositions.
• Clear and prominent CTAs.
• Mobile-optimised images or videos that capture attention quickly.

7. Avoid Pop-ups and Intrusive Interstitials

While pop-ups can be useful on desktop websites, they often lead to a poor user experience on mobile devices. Pop-ups that take over the entire screen or require multiple taps to close can frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates. Google also penalises websites with intrusive interstitials, which can negatively impact your rankings.

How to avoid pop-up issues on mobile:

• Limit the use of pop-ups, or ensure they’re easy to close on mobile devices.
• Use banner ads or other non-intrusive ways to capture leads without disrupting the user experience.

8. Test Across Multiple Devices

Mobile devices come in various screen sizes and operating systems. It’s important to test your website on multiple devices—such as iPhones, Android phones, tablets, and different browsers—to ensure a seamless experience across the board.

Tools for mobile testing:

• Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check how well your site performs on mobile.
• Employ device emulators like BrowserStack to test your website on various mobile devices and operating systems.

9. Implement Mobile-Specific SEO

Optimising your website for mobile requires a slightly different approach to SEO. In addition to following best practices for general SEO, such as optimising meta tags and headers, you’ll need to ensure your website is mobile-friendly to rank higher in search engine results.

Mobile SEO best practices:

• Prioritise local SEO by optimising for location-based keywords and ensuring your business is listed in local directories like Google My Business.
• Optimise title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users, ensuring they’re concise and deliver clear information.