Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you know you need to optimize your website for mobile.
More searches are performed every day using mobile devices than any other search media. Whether people are using smartphones or tablets, they are on the go and ready to search whatever, wherever, whenever. Is your site as ready as they are? If it’s not, there are a few simple things you need to do to begin the process. Once you complete these steps, you will want a more in-depth look at what you need to do to ensure your site is properly optimized.
What is Google Looking for on Your Site?
If you have had a website around for a long time, you should already have implemented responsive features several years ago. For several years, the need to offer a site as functional on mobile devices as desktop and laptop computers has been present. Today, this need is more significant than ever before. Thankfully, you won’t need to create an entirely new site to optimize for mobile devices, but you will need to make a few changes to improve your site’s functionality.
Google supports three configurations for mobile-optimized sites. These are:
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- 1. Responsive web design -Sites that allow functionality across the board, regardless of the type of device being used
- 2. Dynamic URL devices –These are sites that serve all devices but use different HTML and CSS depending on the type of device used
- 3. Separate sites –These are sites that have separate platforms for mobile and desktop functions and different URLs for each
Many older sites fall into the third category. If your older website hasn’t transitioned to responsive or dynamic device usage, you’ll need to add a separate platform to support mobile and desktop designs. This can be time-consuming.
Isn’t There a Better Option to Optimize for Mobile Devices?
Yes, there is. Many companies have shut down their older websites when a new site is functional. All information can be transferred to the new responsive website that easily allows functionality across mobile and desktop devices. This solution can bring your website from the dark ages into the modern-day. Not only should you use responsive web design, but you should also begin to operate with a Mobile-First mentality. This process means designing web pages with the mobile user in mind, not the desktop user.
Begin Building Your Responsive Design
Several years ago, the only way to build a responsive website was to create a second set of pages and test them for mobile optimization. This is a tedious task and took many web design companies hours to accomplish. Think of this as doing the work twice but only seeing a single result. While frustrating, this was a necessary part of the process. Thankfully, that process is gone, and we no longer need to double the work. Almost all web design programs offer the features necessary to ensure your site looks great no matter what device is used.
Of course, if you purchase a web design theme with responsive options and don’t like some of the options or the article doesn’t offer the desired functionality, you have another choice. Many web developers offer custom-built themes that can provide every function and process you want.
Turn Your Website Into a Profit Machine
Because you’re building or rebuilding a website for your car dealership, it’s hard to add an eCommerce function to the process, or is it? Before the pandemic struck, most dealerships would have told you they couldn’t sell cars online and wouldn’t have even tried. Today, that’s not the case. Many dealers implemented online selling tools on their websites to sell cars in a touchless world. This allowed them to interact with customers and process the sale while the customer stayed at home. If you’re willing to deliver your cars to your customers, this is something you’ll want your website developer to add to your website while they are working on optimizing it for mobile devices. This is just one more way to be a step ahead of some of your competitors.
Go Mobile First, but Remember the Desktop Users
Even though we live in a world where more than 75% of searches are performed on mobile devices, we also live in a world with some limitations. Mobile devices have gotten much more practical and functional over the past several years, but there are still some limitations. Today’s most significant challenge facing most websites on mobile devices is how fast the pages load. This is called Page Load Speed, and it is a factor in ranking your website with Google. Your pages load in less than three seconds, or users must be going to turn away and look for another site with the information they need.
How Do You Control the Page Load Speed?
The most significant way to ensure your site loads quickly on mobile devices is to cut out the fat. Trim the size of photos to fit better with smaller file sizes and use video links that load quickly. Using your responsive design, the pages will automatically include right on the device, but the images and videos can still slow things down. Controlling these factors will aid the overall optimization of your website for mobile devices. Optimize your page for mobile with better page load speeds.
There’s a Lot More You Need to Know
We can’t cover everything you need to understand about transitioning your website into the mobile world in one article. We can give you some basics, which we have, and let you begin to get things done. You’ve already fallen behind if you’ve seen your dealership website traffic slow down and you don’t offer a mobile-optimized website. Now is the time to get this fixed and begin to attract traffic to your site via mobile searches. Put these tips to work and then find the next step to ensuring your website is seen by those searching for their next vehicle.
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