Mobile usage has increased exponentially in the last couple of years. Now more than 60 percent of all the people who use the internet use mobile devices most of the time for browsing. Plus, Google has made it clear that if you want your website to be delivered in search results, your website must be mobile friendly. With about 30 percent of web traffic being delivered from mobile devices, it’s time to get on board.

There are a few different ways you can get on the mobile bandwagon. You can design a responsive website, an adaptive CSS-based website, or you can build a totally separate mobile site hosted on a subdomain. The best way for most small business owners is to go with one responsive website design using a builder such as self-hosted WordPress. Once you’ve realized this, you can move on with design process.

Choose a Theme – There are themes that do everything for you so that you don’t have to worry about a lot of the details. Themes for WordPress work by just plugging them in, for example Elegant Themes and Woo Themes. You can also use SquareSpace and WIX.

Links:
Elegant Themes – http://www.elegantthemes.com/
Woo Themes – https://www.woothemes.com/
SquareSpace – http://www.squarespace.com/
WIX – http://www.wix.com/

• Mobile First – Don’t bother designing your website for a desktop version. Instead, design it for mobile. Other than features that work only on mobile, everything you design will work great on your desktop and on the mobile devices.
• Build Your Menu – It’s important to map out the path you want your audience to take when they visit your website in advance, before creating the menu options. Consider how you want each page to look and what you want the visitors to do. Read, buy, and sign up for a newsletter – be clear about what you want them to do.
• Small Screen Navigation – Remember that mobile screens can be quite small, and some people’s fingers are large. You want to design large buttons that make it easy to click with fingers or a stylus. Give enough space for fingers to click as well as highlight to indicate what you’re doing. Plus, the font needs to be readable.
• Fix Dropdowns – Dropdowns are difficult on mobile but can work. You need to design them so that they drop down with just a click and not the same way as a mouse works. Remember to make each choice large enough to click with a finger.
• Make More Buttons – On a desktop it’s easy to type in information, but on a mobile device it’s not as easy. Any time you can give a button or radio button as a choice instead of making the user type in words, that’s better for engagement.
• Add in Mobile Features – Click to call, linked addresses, and those types of features are important on mobile devices. They don’t all work on desktop browsers, but they do work on mobile devices and your visitor will appreciate it.

Using the technology that is available to make the elements needed for mobile sites work across all browsers isn’t difficult today. Simply use the right website builder, or hire a website designer who understands the best practices of mobile SEO and design. By creating a website that works well on mobile, you automatically improve your SEO by helping your website show up on search results.