Transferring content from your desktop website to your mobile website isn’t as simple as copy and pasting. If you did that you would end up with a mobile website with far too many pages and too much information that people aren’t willing to read. Your mobile audience behaves differently than people accessing your desktop site. Generally they are on the go, and don’t have the time to scroll through large amounts of text on a smaller screen. Every mobile website needs to be specific and streamlined. Here are some tips to make sure you get the most out of your mobile website.
Create a template. This can easily be done in Word. Open a blank document, set the page width to 5.5 cm (the average smartphone width), and set the font size to 15pt and away you go! This will give you a good idea of what your content will look like on a smart phone.
Keep it short and sweet. As a general rule, the word count on each page of a mobile website should be between 75-110 words. Keep in mind though, that only the first 80-90 words will be visible on the screen, without images.
Top-Load your content. Remove unnecessary sentences and paragraphs, the very first line on your mobile website should contain the most valuable information on the page. For example, your about us page should start off with your company motto or guarantee rather than the history of the company.
Make sure it’s readable. Fancy fonts may look good on your desktop site, but can be hard to read on a mobile. Stick to web safe fonts such as Verdanah or Trebuchet to make sure your content is as easy to read as possible.
Use headings. People are usually scanning when they are reading mobile websites. And they could easily miss something if it is hiding from them. Use headings to categorise your content. This makes it easy for your readers to find what they are looking for quickly.
Use strong call to actions. Your call to actions should be at the top or bottom of every page (both is even better!). Use strong succinct wording, colourful buttons and touch friendly links to make them stand out and easy to use. A great example of this is the touch to call button. This makes it so easy for your reader to call you straight from the mobile website, and makes them more likely to contact you than if you didn’t have the touch to call button. If your call to action is a form, remember that it is harder and more time consuming to type on a smart phone, keep the number of fields down as much as possible to make this task easier.
These are great tips to remember when writing content for your mobile website, whether you are starting from scratch or just revising the current version. If you need help with creating powerful content or converting to a mobile webitse, Clarity Marketing can help. Give us a call on 1300 060 204 or submit an online enquiry.