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5 Ways to Make Your Blog More Mobile-Friendly

The number people using mobile devices to browse the web has gone up significantly in the past few years. A recent report by Forbes found that over half of all adults in the U.S. use smart phones. A significant percentage of them also use tablets or ereaders. As a blogger, you probably have a decent number of your online traffic coming in from some sort of mobile device. Because of this, it’s important to make sure your blog is mobile friendly.

FreeGuestPost.com is a mobile-friendly blog

What Happens If My Blog Isn’t Mobile-Friendly?

Do you remember the last time you looked at a website from your smart phone that wasn’t mobile-friendly? Websites that do not adapt to the new trend of mobile Internet surfing are much harder to read. You have to scroll a lot, or zoom in and out; pictures and videos can be difficult to view; and loading times take longer on a website that was not made to view from a mobile device. As a reader, you have to have a lot of patience to put up with that. Most likely, you left the website pretty quickly. If your blog isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing a lot of good traffic.

How Do I Make My Blog Mobile-Friendly?

There are actually a few options for making your blog mobile-friendly. Some of them will depend on the blogging platform you use; others will depend on your budget.

  1. Create a separate version of your website specifically for mobile devices. When someone visits your site from their smart phone, ereader, or tablet, they are automatically directed to the mobile version of your blog. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive. However, it’s also not a great option for a few reasons. When you upload new content or publish new posts, you have to do it for both types of websites. This is obviously more labor-intensive and time consuming. This website also won’t work for tablets – just smart phones. If your readers attempt to share your URL with their friends, desktop users will click through the link to the mobile website. Load time could be affected. And lastly, there can also be some significant issues with your SEO if you don’t follow Google’s rules for such instances.
  2. Build a website that has a responsive design. “Responsive design” means that the website is built using percentages instead of exact measurements. Choosing this method allows your blog to adapt to whatever device your viewers choose. This option is a favorite of Google’s and eliminates many of the problems of a separate website: you only need to publish content once and loading times also adapt to the device being used. However, the downside is that this type of website is more expensive to create initially. Depending on how old your website is, it might be impossible to convert it to a responsive design.
  3. Choose a blog theme that is mobile-friendly. Many WordPress themes now come with a mobile-friendly feature. They will automatically adapt to any mobile device. However, even the ones that don’t have that feature are still easier to view on a mobile device than a static website. Anyone who accesses a WordPress blog will see a mobile-friendly site, though it might not look the same as your desktop blog. That’s because your specific theme will not translate over; instead, WordPress has another theme that automatically applies. Blogger also has templates that are mobile-friendly. Using a theme that is mobile-friendly is easy to do, and you can do it without calling in for backup. It’s also inexpensive. The one downside is that you might have to change the entire look of your blog, or your mobile site will not look exactly like your blog. Look into individual themes and templates to find out more.
  4. Install a mobile-friendly plugin. One of the greatest parts about WordPress blogs is all the many plugins that are available. Fortunately, there are plugins that create a website accessible by mobile devices. The plugin also gives you the option of themes that are mobile-friendly. This is a great option for those who have had their WordPress blog for a long time. You don’t have to change your theme or your blog’s appearance, but you can still create a mobile-friendly blog.
  5. Adapt specific elements in your blog. If you want to keep your blog the same, there are a few individual parts you can change to still make it mobile-friendly. Try using smaller images that are easier to see from a smart phone without pinching the screen to zoom out. Smaller graphics also help cut down on loading time. Make your buttons larger so that they are easier for fingers on touch screens to press.

I’ve made my blog mobile-friendly. Now what?

Sit back and check out your analytics. Most likely, you had plenty of traffic coming in from mobile sources before you made changes to your blog. Compare how your visitor behavior changes after your adaptions. Is your bounce rate lowering? Are you gaining more mobile traffic? You may not see any major changes at first, but your readers are thanking you for making your blog easier for them to read.

What changes have you made to your blog to make it more mobile-friendly?

Sources:

Rogowsky, Mark. “More Than Half Of Us Have Smartphones, Giving Apple And Google Much To Smile About.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/06/06/more-than-half-of-us-have-smartphones-giving-apple-and-google-much-to-smile-about/. (5 Nov. 2013).

Brenner, Joanna. “Pew Internet: Mobile.” http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx. (5 Nov. 2013).

Clearly, Ian. “How to Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly.” http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-make-your-blog-mobile-friendly/. (9 Dec. 2013).

Olson, Derek. “CHOOSING BETWEEN RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN AND A SEPARATE MOBILE SITE TO IMPROVE MOBILE VISITORS’ EXPERIENCE.” http://www.foraker.com/choosing-between-responsive-web-design-and-a-separate-mobile-site-to-improve-mobile-visitors%E2%80%99-experience/. (9 Dec. 2013).

“Themes >> Mobile Themes.” http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/mobile-themes/. (10 Dec. 2013).

Chan, Louisa. “How To Make A Mobile Friendly Blogspot Blog Site II.”http://www.louisachan.com/how-to-make-a-mobile-friendly-blogspot-blog-site-ii/. (10 Dec. 2013).

Sharkov, Daniel. “3 Simple Ways to Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly and Improve User Experience.” http://www.reviewzntips.com/mobile-friendly-blog/. (10 Dec. 2013).

8 Little-Known Factors That Are Turning Visitors Away from Your Blog

We’ve all been on obnoxious websites that make us want to scream. Pop-ups, auto-playing songs or videos, illegible font colors, and constant flashing advertisements make us wonder how websites like that even attract visitors. We may never know a specific answer to that question, but we do know they aren’t attracting as much traffic as they could be with a few minor changes. Blogs are often the same way: a well-meaning blogger might not be aware that the aesthetics of his or her homepage is turning visitors off to their blog. If you have a large exit rate on your homepage, you might be making some of these mistakes:

  1. Your “About Me” page/section is lacking. Bloggers are always hesitant to complete their “about me” page. This isn’t a new phenomenon: as human beings, we have a hard time bragging about ourselves. However, just as you need to learn to toss humility out the window for a job interview, you need to work on thoroughly filling out your “about me” section. The “about me” page is one of the most visited sections of your blog. Why do your readers want to know more about you? Visitors read blogs because they love to relate to other people, to hear familiar stories from someone living across the country from them. Showing just how human you are, while sharing your qualifications, will draw in more readers.
  2. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly. Online marketing experts are stressing harder than ever the importance of having a website that is accessible to mobile devices. With ereaders, tablets, and smart phones on the rise, you can’t afford to not have a mobile-friendly website.
  3. It’s difficult to navigate on your blog. Troubling navigation can turn visitors off of any website. They key to having an easy navigation is to overdo it, to some extent: use tags to categorize blog posts; use archives to organize posts by date; use “best of” lists to show off your best blog posts; have pages at the top of the page; and have a search function within your website. However, even though multiple types of redundant navigation is helpful to the reader, too much will distract and overwhelm them. Have a friend search through your blog to find the right balance.
  4.  Your blog is too busy and distracting. There is such a thing as over-designing. Bloggers can get so swept up in the creative process that they end up cluttering their blog with too much cute. Many are aware of the growing trend towards clean minimalism in design, but can’t help themselves. Your personal blog is, of course, a way to express yourself, and your blog design should reflect that. But if your design is too complicated and too overwhelming, readers will be turned off. Again, have a friend double-check your projects before you post them all over your homepage.
  5. Your blog does not look polished and professional. For many beginning bloggers, this is a difficult problem to solve without paying a professional web designer. However, there are little tweaks here and there that can make your blog look more polished: make the images on your sidebar all the same size; make sure all images and pictures within the blog are appealing and professional; and organize the advertisements on your page so they aren’t cut off anywhere. You may not think that readers will notice the little details, and the truth is, they probably won’t: they will, however, notice differences between two images and other glaring inconsistencies.
  6. Your formatting is unreadable. Small font sizes, large blocks of texts that aren’t broken up into paragraphs, using bold, italics, and caps lock in the same paragraph can make your text extremely difficult to read. And who wants to work to read a blog post? Not your readers.
  7. Your colors are unappealing. Perfect color combinations take a fine eye to create. Amateur designers absolutely can use the resources available to them to create the perfect palette on their own, but they can also choose colors that turn off the reader. Instead of picking your favorite colors, find colors that complement each other. And don’t make multiple colors compete with each other for attention: pick primary and complementary colors.
  8. Your comments section is a mess. This mistake may come down to whatever plugin or programming you’re using on your blog. Comments sections where the comments are difficult to read, are cut off, or overlap with each other do actually turn away readers. Visitors come to your blog to engage, to join in the conversation. Even if they never leave a comment, many of them like to read what others have said. If they can’t do that, they may not come back to your blog. Whatever programs you use to organize your comments, it better look appealing and readable.

What are some of the most obnoxious mistakes that turn you away from a new blog? Share your thoughts in the comments!