These days, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your SME is missing out on traffic and sales. With over 63% of global internet traffic coming from mobile, and Google indexing mobile versions of websites first, ignoring mobile optimisation is simply not an option.
But why should a mobile-friendly website matter to a South African SME?
Because South Africans spend 31.72% of their awake time browsing the internet and social media on their smartphones. That’s one of the highest figures globally.
A mobile-friendly website can therefore help you reach more customers, generate more leads, enhance people’s experience and boost SEO.
Below are eight ways to get it right:
1. Use a responsive design
Responsive design automatically adjusts your layout to suit the screen size. That means your site looks and works great on smartphones, tablets and desktops. There's no need for zooming or awkward scrolling. It’s the foundation of any mobile-first site.
2. Simplify your layout
Mobile visitors are looking for speed and convenience. Keep your layout clean and minimal. Use hamburger menus to neatly tuck away navigation. Keep paragraphs short, break up long content with accordions and shorten form fields to include only the essentials.
3. Design for thumbs
Most users browse with one hand and one thumb. Keep important buttons, menus and CTAs in the middle of the screen and well-spaced so they’re easy to tap. Avoid tiny touch targets or links crammed too closely together.
4. Avoid pop-ups
On mobile, pop-ups often do more harm than good. They block content, are hard to close and frustrate visitors. Worse still, Google may penalise your rankings for using intrusive mobile pop-ups. Use slide-in banners or in-line CTAs instead.
5. Prioritise legibility
Small screens demand clear fonts and high contrast. Use easy-to-read sans-serif fonts at 16px or larger. Avoid light grey text on white backgrounds or anything that disappears in bright daylight. For an inclusive experience, add alt text to images and stick to strong contrast ratios.
6. Speed things up
Mobile users expect lightning-fast load times. Anything slower than three seconds and you risk losing traffic. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify what’s dragging you down. Compress images, minify code and choose premium web hosting to keep things snappy and stable.
7. Optimise images for mobile
Heavy images are the enemy of fast loading. Use modern formats like WebP, compress image sizes and load visuals only when needed (lazy loading). On mobile, less is more, so only include images that enhance your message or guide user action.
8. Test and tweak regularly
Mobile usage patterns change all the time. What worked a year ago may not work well today. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test or BrowserStack to check how your site performs across devices. Ask for feedback and make updates based on real user behaviour.
With South Africans among the top mobile users worldwide, your website must offer a fast, seamless and user-friendly experience on every device. Choose Domains.co.za for reliable web hosting and add the company's affordable Site Builder to get your website up and running with ease.
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