Mobile has overtaken desktop as the go-to device for accessing the internet. With the latest proportion figures reaching over 60%, mobile-focused marketing is no longer a “nice to have” but another important arrow in your quiver, tool in your box and feather in your cap. Your mobile site now has to pull its weight when it comes to generating leads. Pairing nicely with our blog post on increasing AdWords mobile performance, here are 7 top tips to improving your conversion rate on mobile sites!

1. Mobile users have shorter attention spans – your content should reflect this

When designing or reviewing your site remember that mobile users are more likely to be in a rush. Your website has to communicate its message quickly and clearly. Content should be punchy and powerful, convincing potential customers to share their details with you as soon as possible. While you need to convey your USPs, you probably don’t need to mention every detail of your staff Christmas do...

2. Optimise for mobile screens; readable and responsive

There’s no point designing a beautiful mobile site with an intricate animation illustrating the multiple ways your business can help its clients, if the whole thing stutters on smartphones and the text is too small. Instead you want a website that’s readable and responsive.A responsive website is a hot topic in web development at the moment. This means a site can dynamically change what is displayed based on the size of the screen viewing it. Now you can have one page that works for desktops, tablets, and mobile. To learn a bit more about responsive web design, read our blog post about it.

3. File size is important

If......your............page........loads........like........this, no one is going to stick around. Retro is cool, waiting for images to load like it's 1995 isn’t. While important on desktop, mobile sites can live or die by their load speed – every millisecond countsNot only will a visitor become bored and leave, but they may cancel the page load due to data usage worries. For starters, make sure you aren't using needlessly high resolution images, and that videos don’t automatically load.

4. Clear Call To Action (CTA)

Once we’ve got a visitor to a website, we absolutely want to make sure they know what to do next. On a lead generation site this will be filling in a contact form or calling a phone number, but other sites may have other goals, such as generating online sales. You’ll want to use colourful, distinctive buttons that scream “Click Me!” to stand out from the rest of your page.(Pet peeve: try not to use “Submit” as your CTA, try something more human and relevant, such as “Apply for a quote” or “Get in touch”.)

5. No one likes to fill out forms, especially on mobile

When designing your contact form, try to decide the minimum amount of information that you truly need from a lead - the shorter the form the better. If you still need to collect lots of details, consider splitting your form into multiple steps. These steps should be short and sweet, with clever use of dropdown menus and autocomplete fields where appropriate.

6. A good form is a visible form

With all this effort being put into making a clever, slim-line page, it would be a shame to hide the contact form out of site. The further the viewer has to scroll, the more likely they are to give up before they get there. Ideally, the form will be placed above the fold (you can see it when the page loads without scrolling) or as near as possible. You’ll also want to make sure the form has room to “breathe” and isn’t crammed in with the rest of your content.

7. Why not try clickable phone numbers

Last but not least - switching between a browser and a phone app to type in a number is a pain, and not many people use the copy and paste function. Instead, go ahead and make contact numbers clickable on your mobile site. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it makes sense.If you’d be interested in finding out more about conversion optimisation, and how we can help you – get in touch!