5 Tools to Help Optimize Your Website for Mobile
As smartphones and mobile devices continue to grow in popularity, accessibility and usage, they create a new opportunities and challenges for businesses and their websites.
A 2012 Google survey reported that 72% of mobile users were more likely to return to mobile friendly websites, while 61% were likely to quickly leave a site that wasn’t mobile friendly in order find a better one. This is huge for businesses’ websites today. So how do you make sure your website is effective on mobile? This question may seem overwhelming, but a total redesign and overhaul isn’t completely necessary. There are 5 easy tools that can be used as starting points for discovering how useful and efficient your site is on mobile devices.
1. Google’s Mobile Website Speed Tester
This tool allows for easy access and quick results. Just input your URL and within seconds, it generates an overview report that scores your website’s mobile friendliness and mobile and desktop speed out of 100. You can also choose to be emailed a free detailed report of your site. This email outlines what aspects of your website are working well, what could be better, and what needs fixing. The website’s home screen also provides a link at the bottom to more in-depth explanations for developers to learn how to optimize mobile efficiency and performance.
2. Page Speed Insights
Like the first tool, Page Speed Insights provides a generated report after analyzing your URL and scores your mobile and desktop sites out of 100. This source doesn’t email you a more detailed report but includes it in the numerical scoring system, with optimization suggestions and instructions on how to fix certain issues. While this site doesn’t break down scores individually based on your site’s speed like Google’s Mobile Website Speed Tester, it does provide easier access to optimization explanations.
3. Mobile-Friendly Test
This resource provides similar results as the first two only without the percentage scoring. It reports if your site is mobile friendly and gives an option for an emailed usability report. One of the benefits of this tool is the educational information on mobile friendly websites that it provides. It includes multiple articles from Google for Webmasters that explain why it’s important to be mobile friendly, common mistakes with mobile sites, and mobile SEO (Search Engine Optimization) configurations. It’s a really great tool with explanations for prime mobile customization.
4. HubSpot’s Website Grader
Another site-grading resource provides a more extensive analysis of your website. Website Grader generates an overall score of your website out of 100 and then breaks that down based on Performance, Mobile, SEO, and Security. Each of these four scores explain what elements of the site are working well and what needs work. They also provide links with detailed explanations of how to solve each problem and education on the issue. The “What Should I Do Next” report provides a concise and straightforward explanation of what steps to take to improve your site’s performance both on mobile and desktop.
5. Pure Oxygen Labs’ Mobile SEO Tools
After inputting your URL and email, this site directs you to its report that lays out what your site is doing best and what it is missing. While not as in-depth as previous mobile optimization tools, this one breaks down your site’s information based on server and page signals. It’s a good starting point to understanding how your website is laid out and what’s missing from the mobile page configuration. It also has options for a mobile site analysis and a mobile redirect viewer which examine how your site performs with mobile signals, servers, and discovers any mobile errors that could occur.
With all these tools at your disposal, you can be on your way to discovering the best way to improve your site’s mobile performance. Every report that these resources generate offer unique insight to optimizing your mobile site which allows you to reach even more mobile users. Don’t let something as simple as your business’ mobile web formatting keep you from reaching as many future clients as possible.