A mobile website is a must in 2017! So many people use their phone to browse the internet these days, that even your non-techy grandma can tell you that no online presence is complete without a perfectly built mobile website. But knowing how to build them is one thing and implementation is another.

After someone finishes creating their website, most assume that optimization for mobile browsing is done automatically. While technological developments make building a full site into a mobile one very smooth, important distinctions between regular and mobile web still require some special attention and design fines.

If you’re going to optimize your site for mobile, you better do it right. In this article, we cover all the steps needed to ensure that your mobile website is performing at its best!

How much time do consumers spend using mobile media?

Mary Meeker’s annual spring updates on mobile are a must-read if you follow consumer adoption of technology platforms, so we decided to use some of the key findings from the latest KPCB mobile technology trends. In short. mobile digital media time in the United States is significantly higher at 51% compared to that on a desktop which is 42%.

Understand mobile optimization and content development

Along every step of the way, you need to remember that mobile browsing has its own set of specific rules. Two considerations should guide your mobile content plan. The first is that site visitors are accessing your site when they’re out and about, and most likely while in a rush. The second is that the very small screen size completely changes how someone will interact with your content. Even if they’re scrolling leisurely while relaxing at home, they never get to enjoy the convenient features of a full-screen experience.

This means your mobile-optimized content should provide immediate and detailed answers to questions. Content hierarchy is extremely important – the most important messaging should always come first! For one, visitors should never have to search all over your website to find what they’re looking for. But in addition to that, business owners should prioritize visual branding too. You want to get an immediate and correct message across to your target audience.

The golden rule is that good mobile offers a clear and succinct experience, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of its visual quality. Whether on a big screen or a small screen, appealing and fun content is your top priority as a website owner.

Make sure your target audience can easily contact you

Mobile website users will always expect fast and simple access to the most important data that your mobile website offers, and that includes your contact information. If your users need to contact your business and are unable to easily find how to do so, they will lose patience and decide to move on. The best way to out this fire is to add these items to the top of your mobile website. This should show your phone number, address, contact email, and social media links on a convenient and clean area, letting your site visitors know that they are more than welcome to contact you.

Provide a clean mobile website navigation experience

In the area of mobile devices, size is always a challenge. There is absolutely no room for error here. When you design your website’s mobile navigation menu, you must consider the limitations of how small a mobile screen is and try to make the most of their little available space. But don’t panic, you don’t need to start measuring pixels now. Make sure your most relevant pages are included in this menu. 5 to 7 items should be fine. Any more than that and they may have a navigation issue.

Optimize your images to load fast on the go

If you thought that your visual content is important on desktops, wait until you start designing on the mobile site. Small file size images that are optimized for mobile screen sizes can increase the design and user experience exponentially. There are plenty of image optimization tools online that can help you with this process. This mobile image resizing tool will save you plenty of time and effort and ensure your media loads super-fast. You don’t want someone with a metered or low data plan, or no WIFI connection waiting around for a 3mb image to download and appear. A 3mb image will take ate last 10 seconds to load and kill their experience in a heartbeat. When an image is optimized, it’s size should be around 500kb. We guarantee it will load instantly on any type of data connection

Pay attention to readability

The most beautiful and organized content in the entire mobile universe would always fail if site visitors are having a hard to reading it. With mobile screens, this is even more acute than with larger ones. It’s not only your website’s font size that matters. Different font family’s themselves provide a different reading experience altogether (How to choose the right fonts for small screens).

Other important factors in providing a relaxing readability experience is color contrast and the right amount of spacing. Your site colors should form a harmonious combination, with fonts and background colors working together rather than fighting each other. Leaving enough space in your paragraphs, and between texts and other elements, is important as well. Large amounts of text that seem to have no beginning or end are just too painful to read through.

Offer fast navigation with site search

The mobile web is all about quick interaction and fast results. Navigating a mobile site in search of something is more tiresome than any other device, but you can make it easier by adding a search bar. This allows your site visitors to quickly type in what they are looking for. The search bar saves them time and minimizes the number of steps your visitor will need to take before getting what they want. Everyone loves shortcuts, right?

Don’t overwork your visitor

Great websites typically invite visitors to engage by soliciting some kind of action. With mobile website design, these interactions should be designed a bit more cautiously. Typing on a mobile keypad is, well, not the most fun thing to do. Keep that in mind when you add elements that require the input of your audience. If you use signup forms, for example, try to limit the required entry fields. If you are asking for your visitors’ feedback on something, give them a choice of icons or emojis they can tap instead of asking them to type it out.

If You Still Are Unsure Where To Turn

The Digital Agenda Web Development Agency provides Professional Mobile Web Design and Optimization to small businesses, brands, and professionals. We are Mobile Website Design Experts committed to delivering the best Mobile experience that engages your customers, gain traffic, and promote your brand. We build value and help our clients to achieve their unique business goals by connecting sustainable online technologies, clean visual design, and exceptional customer service. Explore our other solutions such as Real estate website development, Plastic Surgery websites, Medical website design, or Contact Us Today!

So you’ve just begun a YouTube channel, shared it everywhere and even ideally integrated it into your magnificent website. Go you! Still not receiving the views you expected for? That’s because you haven’t tapped into YouTube Search Engine Optimization. Even with a handful of videos beneath your belt, you might not have looked into one of the most essential aspects of the procedure as you must have.

Obtaining high rankings on YouTube is a consequence of two things. To begin with, you will need to appeal to the platform, but you’ll also need to appeal to your audience so you really get higher subscribers and view counts. Up to the task? Great, as we have got some fantastic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) hints to assist you using YouTube and a few of engagement approaches to reel in your viewers.

Keyword research

After you’ve uploaded a video on YouTube, you’ll be asked to fill out the title, description, and tags for it. Sounds easy enough, but this is one of the most significant parts of the process and it’s not something you want to do haphazardly. However, you have some homework to do first.

Before you even start filling out your title or description, you’ll want to know what your focus keywords or key phrases will be. Your first stop will be to see the competition surrounding the keywords you’re looking to utilize and use. Whether it’s in the form of Google’s own AdWords Keyword Planner or the many other free choices it’s up to you, but this will allow you to see popularity and the competition you’ll be faced with.

Short tail vs. long-tail keywords

Had your heart set on “DIY Birthday Cards” for your keyword, only to find out that it’s incredibly famous and popular already? Shorter key phrases are referred to as short-tail, and you’ll find this is where the greatest competition lies. In case you think your fledgling YouTube channel can’t compete with short tail keywords, don’t worry, you have options…

Long-tail keywords allow you to get a little more specific, while still using the initial key phrase you wanted to. So instead of “DIY Birthday Cards,” you could make it “DIY Birthday Cards for Girls” or “DIY Birthday Cards for Valentine’s Day.” While it may be searched less-often, it also offers less competition, better aiming and in the event you’re looking into advertising, it’ll cost much less than short-tail keywords.

Are your keywords video-friendly?

Think you’ve nailed it on your keywords for your video? Though this might be accurate for YouTube itself, it might not be the situation for search engines. The best way to find out is to actually search for your desired keywords in Google. Basically, you’re looking to see if videos appear on the first page when searching your keyword. If they do, you’ll have a better chance at ranking well on both YouTube and Google.

Terms like “how-to,” “review,” “hands-on” and “unboxing” all have great potential to show videos on the first page of Google, so you’re pretty safe if you’re using one of them. Still, it’s best to try it yourself with multiple keyword options before you settle on one.

Appeal to YouTube

Now that you’ve researched your keywords, it is time to apply all you’ve discovered by placing your best foot forward.

Title

The content of your video will determine how your title is structured, but it’s significant to have your keywords in the first portion of the title. If your video is about how to make doughnut ice cream cones, “How to” or “Do it yourself” would naturally fall in the beginning of the title, but that may not always be the case, depending on your keywords.

It is ideal to maintain your title short and concise. Anything aside from the vital words for the title can be set in the description section below. As long as the title showcases your keywords prominently and the point gets across, you’re good to go.

Description

Much like Google bots don’t actually see your photos when indexing websites, YouTube doesn’t know exactly what your video is about when you first upload it. For websites, photos need to contain alt-text in order for search engines to understand what they’re about. For YouTube, the description plays this role, acting as the translator.

It’s significant to note that long-tail keywords do well in your description, especially if long tail is the primary route you’re going in. Remember, the detailed approach may be less popular, but it’s more efficient (at least in the beginning). Why? Because writing a long description is very valuable to get your video, as it provides more information to both YouTube as well as the viewer, and this may positively impact your ranking.

In addition, the description section is also a great place to add links to your social networks and your website. Feel free to over-share here.

Tags

While there’s a debate on whether tags are still significant or not, it’s another location to describe your video that YouTube offers, so use it! A mix of specific and general tags is suggested, allowing your video to span multiple avenues. You can use both your short and long-tail keywords here as well.

An older tactic for tags was that you should always put 20 tags per video, but this practice isn’t as popular as it used to be. While it likely won’t hurt your ranking if you opt to do this, it could also do nothing for you. The best practice is to add as many tags to properly describe your video as needed. If you feel that your clip needs 20 tags, no one’s stopping you.

Appeal to viewers

Now that you have your bases covered for your video to entice YouTube, it’s time to put your effort on the viewers out there that will actually bring you the success you’re looking for. Here are a few tips you can do that may not dramatically change your ranking for YouTube Search Engine Optimization but will catch the eye of viewers.

A stand-out thumbnail

In the event, you have your key phrases for your video already, visit YouTube, and search for this to see your contest. Now, look at the thumbnails of each similar video. Do you see a common style or theme between them that you could pinpoint? Good, now do the opposite.

YouTube viewers will naturally gravitate to videos that catch their eye, so having a video thumbnail that stands out from the sea of other offerings is significant. If you see a common color theme between your competitions, make your thumbnail contrast so it’s prominent. That said no need to use every single color possible.

Keep your intro short and punchy. Tell the viewer exactly what they are about to see and get it to it. You can tell your “super interesting and only semi-related story” later. People usually come to YouTube to either learn something or be entertained, and if you’re not doing either of these in the first few seconds of your video, you’re doing it wrong.

Give them a reason to wait (viewer retention)

Even in case you’re capable to the attention of a viewer quickly, it sadly does not mean they will stay for the entire video. Viewer retention weighs heavily on your video’s YouTube ranking, therefore you want people to watch as much of the video as possible.

A tactic you’ve likely seen, quite a few times, on YouTube is the presenter giving a quick intro and then mentioning something interesting that they’ll show or tell you at the end of the video.

There’s a good chance that if you mention that you’ll reveal something interesting at the end of the video that viewers will want to stick around for it. This tactic carries with it potential intrigue and allure, and could become indispensable in your YouTube toolkit.

Engage Your Audience!!!

If YouTube sees a large volume of interaction on your video, its ranking will go up. Of course, you’ll need people actually watching your video to achieve this, but you can help get the ball rolling. This is where engagement is the key!!!

One thing you can do is ask your viewers to ‘like’, subscribe, and comment on your video! It might sound easy, however, this can definitely make a huge difference. To Begin a few conversations, ask questions for viewers to reply in the comments. It is your video, so don’t be afraid to ask away!

Once you start getting comments on your video, be sure that you reply! Keep the conversations going by asking and answering questions!!!

Create an Attractive Call to action

Need to point something out to the viewer when they are watching your video? Annotations, cards, and end screens can make it effortless for you!

Annotations allow you to add a pop-up speech bubble virtually anywhere on your screen, which can be helpful if you need to add a footnote to a part of your video. They’re also useful if you’d like to put a focus on a particular part of your video. Other annotations include note, title, and label. Sound good? Well, you don’t have long to take advantage of annotations, as they will be discontinued on May 2nd, 2017.

Cards are less intrusive than annotations, which provide a better experience for the viewer. They’re also more limited on customization options. Like annotations, you can set the type of card and the time it appears on the screen, but you can’t place it anywhere you want. Card types include video or playlist, channel, donation, poll, and link.

Rounding out the helpful back-end features for your video is end screens. As the name suggests, end screens appear at the end of your video. You can add a call to action for viewers to subscribe to your channel and promote your website.

End screens are another terrific spot to market your other clips. Insert a ‘suggested videos’ to your End screen to keep them viewing content, even if it’s not yours. You just might be thanked by YouTube by simply acquiring a bump in your ranking.

YouTube Search Engine Optimization may appear a little tricky, but with the mentioned tips at your disposal, you’re equipped to climb the ranks!

Having a Professional Business Website for your small business is essential. However, keep in mind that “Bad sites – ones full of mistakes – are almost as damaging as having no website whatsoever.”

There are number of errors you can fall into when crafting your personal or small business website. You could have a poor design or overload your site with text. Or you could have poor CTA’s and keyword targeting, thereby failing to convert any of your visitors.

Because of the mass amount of details you need to consider, as well as the potential pitfalls, creating your business’s website can be overwhelming and exhausting. You have a lot to consider, from how you want to advertise your online business to how much and what kind of content you want to publish.

The first decision you need to make is whether or not you want to design your business site yourself or hire a Top Rated Professional Business Website Design Company. Your answer to this question will narrow down how you should proceed. So which option works best for you?

If You Want To Save Money With Your Professional Business Website

One of the biggest influences on your decision will likely be how much your professional website should cost. The expense of building your own personal or business website is going to be rather high when it comes to the number of zeros on the bill. There is no question that you will get what you pay for, but what you pay for also depends on exactly what you want from your personal or business website. There is no such thing as “one size fits all.”

Perhaps you want to establish a website that is more on the intricate side. Maybe you’re looking for page after page of visible content, each with its own child pages that connect to and interact with other web pages on your site.

In this case, you will probably want to contract outside help to keep your project from getting too out of control. It’s easy to start out with a simple task only to find out that it is a lot more indepth than you had originally thought.

When Should You Do It Yourself?

On the other hand, you might want a simple and straightforward website with minimal interaction and WOW factor. In this case, it will benefit you to look into what it takes to design your own website. If building your own site is the best option for you, doing so will save you time and finances in the long run.

What’s more, building your own Professional Business Website from scratch can give you the skills to eventually be able to design one that is more extensive and more cutting-edge. Start small by yourself, and keep building on your skills and knowledge.

Remember, Creating and Maintaining Web Designs Will Take Time

If you do decide to take move forward and construct your own professional website, then you should know that it is time consuming. Rome was not built in a day, and your website wont be either.

Building an entire business or personal website from scratch is tough, but worth it in the end. If you take the proper first steps, such as receiving a Java certification and professional training, you will streamline the time you spend working on your company website.

No Matter What, Have a Plan for Debugging Your Website

Whether or not you decide to build your business website personally or with an experienced web design company, you need to think of your site as a living thing that, much like you, can get sick.

“Getting sick” takes the form of overloading, crashing, and being hacked! Sometimes websites garner too much traffic for you server to support, and all that stress can cause your server to overload and crash. Other times, your coding (or your Web Design Companies coding) might have a lapse that causes the site to fail and crash too.

A great article about how to fix some of these web design and development issues can be found over at Smashing Magazine

When this happen—and they do more often than you think—you should have a solution that will enable you to get your site debugged and fully scanned. If you hired a web design agency, chances are they will jump on the problem right away and take care of the issue for you. But if you built the site personally, hopefully you know what to do when it gets buggy.

If You Still Are Unsure Where To Turn

The Digital Agenda Web Design Company provides custom Professional Business Website Designs to South Florida small businesses, brands, and professionals. We are WordPress experts committed to delivering responsive websites that engage your customers, gain traffic, and promote your brand. We build value and help our Miami-based clients to achieve their unique business goals by connecting sustainable online technologies, clean visual design, and exceptional customer service. Explore our web development and design solutions and Contact Us Today!