How to Create a Mobile Friendly Website Design That Ranks & Converts

It wouldn’t be a far stretch to say that mobile phones are arguably the greatest invention of the 21st century. And yes, we are making bold and audacious claims right off the bat.

But if you think about it, mobile phones have replaced all the gadgets of the past while still being very pocket-friendly. A device of such size has everything and can be used for just about anything.

It is the complete all-in-one package. And much like all those things, desktop websites aren’t off the grid and are no exception to this change in power either.

People these days no longer bother opening up their laptops or using their desktops to visit websites.

They take the easy and more convenient route by pulling their phone out of their pockets to start surfing the web.

Hence the reason why eCommerce Websites these days are designed with mobile phones in mind rather than being made just for desktops, as was the case in the past.

So, it begs a question, how do you make websites mobile friendly?  Well, that is why we are here, to discuss mobile friendly website design in this blog.

We’ll look at the things that make websites mobile friendly as well as the best practices for creating one.

So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it.

What is a Mobile Friendly Website?

A mobile friendly website is a site whose design, content, images, layout, navigation, and other elements are optimized to be viewed perfectly on mobile phones.

These websites enhance User Experience by adjusting to different screen sizes so the users can have a better viewing experience.

Apart from viewing, mobile websites are easy to use and display content that is easy to read on small screens.

Most mobile website designs use responsive layouts to fit different screen sizes and cater to users on various devices such as phones and tablets.

Mobile phones not only have smaller screens than desktops but also lack the features that desktops have such as Adobe Flash and pop-up screens.

So, to make up for the shortcomings, mobile websites use some features of their own to make websites work and look just as good.

They use buttons, navigations, and fast loading times backed by light designs that make using websites on mobile a walk in the park.

After all, most of the web traffic comes from mobile devices. And that is no wild guess. As per Exploding Topics’ Report, “well over 64% of website traffic in 2025 comes from mobile phones.”

More so, the report states that more than 96.3% of users on the internet surf the web using mobile devices. So, the facts and figures speak for themselves.

Hence, it highlights the importance of making a website mobile friendly in today’s time. Doing so will help you reach wider audiences as well as improve your search engine rankings.

But don’t just leave out desktops, as you can make your website mobile and desktop friendly at the same time.

When you go for mobile web design, your site will display different versions depending on the devices of users. And that includes desktops and tablets as well.

What Makes a Website Design Mobile Friendly? 

 

While there are many things that make a web design mobile-friendly, at the heart of it there are three key elements of a mobile-friendly design.

These are layout, navigation, and communication. Getting these three right will make sure your website makes the most of the limited space on mobile phones.

In doing so, it’ll ensure the layout is adjusted on smaller screen sizes to prevent crowding. Also, it’ll use the limited space smartly.

It means each element gets enough breathing room to stand out on its own rather than being a part of other elements.

However, there’s a whole list of things that a mobile-friendly website has, and it’s as follows:

• Vertical Design: Use vertical design as websites on mobile phones are used in portrait mode.
• Large and Well-Labeled Buttons: Use big buttons with enough white space to make selection easier on phones and avoid unwanted clicks.
• Less and Readable Text: Avoid stuffing too much content on your site. Keep content brief and to the moment. Ensure your text is large and legible.
• Design Consistency: The structured data of your website must be the same on mobile and desktop versions.
• Responsive Layout: Use responsive layout so that it auto-adjusts content, images, and other elements according to the user’s screen size.
• Clean User Interface: The website interface needs to be clean, free of clutter, and not too crowded. Use white space to give enough breathing room to elements so they don’t look out of place.
• Finger-Friendly Navigation: People navigate websites on phones by using their fingers, which are less precise than computer cursors. Therefore, use the “fat finger” principle when designing for smooth navigation.
• HTML5: Use HTML5 and avoid Flash which isn’t found on most phones.
• No Pop-Ups. Disable pop-ups as they annoy users and lead to high bounce rates.

Evolution of Mobile Websites 

 

The website landscape has changed a lot, more so in the past decade or so, than in its entire history.

That’s because mobile websites, which once were short in numbers, now find themselves dominating the internet.

In 2013, the percentage of web traffic from mobile phones was just 16.2%, meaning computers dominated the scene with 83.8% of the web traffic.

But things have changed. And now Google among other search engines gives VIP treatment to websites with a “mobile web design” by rewarding them with higher Search Engine Rankings.

Sites that are made only for desktops get replaced by cool mobile websites, in a matter of seconds. After all, almost the entire web traffic is from mobile devices, as we covered in the stat above.

So, it’s safe to say mobile websites have come a long way from where they stood just a decade ago. They have now literally taken over the world of the internet.

Difference Between Building Mobile Websites and Desktop Websites 

While we mentioned how mobile-friendly web design is different from desktop sites, we’ll discuss them in detail. We’ll look at the differences between the two by doing a quick analogy.
By stacking mobile and desktop websites against one another, we can get an overview of what a mobile has that a desktop site doesn’t and vice versa.

So, let’s compare the two and get into the details with a table, shall we? 

Aspect	Mobile Websites	Desktop Websites
Screen Size	Designed for small screens. Content, images, and layouts adjust to different mobile screen sizes.	Built for larger screens with more space to display multiple elements side-by-side.
Orientation	Uses vertical (portrait mode) design for phones.	Uses horizontal (landscape) layout. It’s standard, with multi-column designs.
Navigation	Uses finger-friendly navigation with big buttons, clear calls-to-action, and enough white space to avoid accidental taps.	Mouse and keyboard navigation with precise cursor control; smaller clickable areas are acceptable.
User Behavior	Users are often on-the-go, browsing quickly for key information. Design emphasizes clarity, speed, and efficiency.	Users are generally seated and focused for longer browsing sessions; more room for detailed content and exploration.
Content Density	Less text, larger fonts, concise information. Content is easy to read without zooming.	Can handle more detailed text, images, and multimedia on each page.
Input Method	Tap and swipe gestures with fingers. Bigger interactive areas use the “fat finger” principle.	Precise point-and-click with mouse and keyboard shortcuts.
Loading Speed	Prioritizes fast load times with compressed images and simple design to accommodate mobile data speeds.	Can include resource-heavy elements since desktops have faster connections and more processing power.
User Interface (UI)	Has clean, uncluttered, and minimalistic UI. Uses plenty of white space so elements don’t crowd the screen.	More complex UI with more elements visible at once. Can include dense menus and sidebars.

10 Best Practices to Make Websites Mobile-Friendly 

 

As we mentioned above, there are a handful of things that a mobile website design needs to have. More so, there are ten best practices to make mobile friendly website design.

And if you can follow these best practices, you can create a mobile friendly website design as well.

So, let’s look at these 10 mobile web design best practices one by one, which are as follows:

1. Research and Design With Mobile-Friendliness in Mind

The importance of this best practice cannot be overstated. Researching and designing with mobile friendliness in mind will change the game for you.

A little homework is all you need to do before you begin creating a mobile friendly website design. One of those bits of research is reading this blog.

That’s because we are covering just about everything that a mobile website needs to have. So, in order to create the best mobile website design, you will need to use the Mobile-First Indexing technique, the same one Google uses.

You will need to keep a balance by featuring the same content, colors, and theme on your mobile and desktop versions.

But you must offer different structures for both versions. Keep the essentials, like showing between 4 to 8 different navigation tabs for a smaller screen.

Remove the home button to make some space. Replace it with your company’s logo on the top left of your website, which also happens to be a button to take users to the home page.

2. Develop a Responsive Layout

Want to create the best mobile friendly websites? Use responsive layouts. That’s because these layouts let Website Dimensions scale to adjust to the user’s device screen.

It adapts to all screen sizes, showing content that matters, and changing design depending on the screen size.

It can switch from a double-column layout on the desktop to a single-column layout for a mobile phone. The “responsive” term in this layout’s name is not there just for the sake of sounding cool.

That’s because it does what it says, which is making the website fast by reducing layouts, all while adapting to screen sizes.

And as far as the experts say, a responsive website is what gets the job done in terms of SEO rankings, and web traffic.

3. Optimize Website Speed 

Speed matters, regardless of what the domain or matter is. But when it comes to websites, speed matters more than anything.

Internet users, and myself included, are like impatient restaurant customers, who just want to skip the waiting time, get the thing, and get out in no time.

So, if anything a website needs to be fast like really fast. A website with slow loading times is as good as dead.

And if your website can load in one second, then it will have a conversion rate that is three times more than the one that loads in five seconds.

The latter is a Website Design Mistake as clear as day. So, in essence, that one second can make or break your second.

Therefore, you must make sure that your website shows up in that one second by optimizing its speed.

One way you can optimize the speed is by hosting your videos on a third-party site and then embedding them on yours.

This way, your site won’t have to carry the heavy load of your videos, as you can let others do the heavy lifting.

Also, you can check your website’s speed on various website speed checkers online and find out what’s slowing you down.

4. Publish Content Optimized for Mobile View

Content is king and copy is queen. You’ll need to publish both on your site to get going with the conversions.

But in doing so, make sure your content is full of quality and is optimized for mobile view. The best practice for that is to keep the content brief and to the point.

More so, use short sentences and break paragraphs when they become long. Avoid using huge content blocks, as no one’s reading it.

Use the “Kill Your Darlings” approach, meaning get rid of anything that’s unnecessary. Publish content that matters and the one that is optimized for mobile view.

Also, make sure you use Content Management System on your site as it will help manage the content and adapt it to the user’s screen size so that they can read it easily.

5. Optimize the Navigation and the Home Page

Your mobile friendly website designer will need to work on optimizing the tunnels of your site; and the navigation pages.

But more so, you will need to optimize the home page as well as the Landing Pages that convert into results. Display the most important pages on the navigation menu, the ones you want users to visit.

Add a search box instead of additional dropdown menus. It will allow users to get to things they are looking for themselves, which is much more convenient.

Minimize the things listed on top of your website. Only include important pages and clear CTAs above the fold. The secondary stuff can go below the fold.

Also, replace the home button with your company’s logo on the top left of your site, which also happens to be a clickable button that takes users to the home page.

6. Compress Images to Boost Speed

When your Graphic Designer as well as mobile website designer creates images for your site, ask them to compress them. Light images help increase website speed.

So, you will need to limit the file size. This can be done using various tools online without sacrificing the quality of the images.

More so, use formats such as JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, AVIF, and WebP. These are much lighter and smaller in file size than JPEGs and PNGs, without compromising the quality.

Also, use the lazy loading feature, meaning images load, only when they are needed. They show up only when users scroll to the section they are placed.

7. Use HTML5 Instead of Adobe Flash

HTML5 is the new sheriff in town and Adobe Flash is old. As good as Adobe Flash is, it is used mainly for animations.

However, mobile phones have no business with animations and therefore most of them don’t even support Adobe Flash.

So, you will need to use HTML5 instead. More so, it will let you do many things without having to use plugins.

It will allow you to embed music, videos, and many more things, all while being supported by mobile phones.

8. Don’t Use Pop-Ups

Pop-ups are your site’s biggest enemy. You may not notice them, but your users will surely do. And they will hate your site for that, all because of those pop-ups.

We understand that pop-ups help you get your message across to the visitor. It gets their attention, much like a phone’s push notification does.

But you have to understand that they only work well on desktops. In mobile phones, they are hard to see on smaller screens. They just make the user experience anything but friendly.

So, it’s better to miss a message opportunity than to bother users with pop-ups that get in their faces, annoy them, and drive them away.

9. Use Large and Readable Font

If your website is not easy to read, then it is of no good use, as simple as that. That is why you will need to make sure you use the right font, with a large size, and one that is easy to read.

It isn’t that difficult after all to make your website readable. But somehow most websites do fail in this important aspect.

So, make sure your website is not one of them. Also, ensure your font is consistent throughout the website and is not too big so that it doesn’t take over the entire screen.

Whichever font you choose to go with, test it in real time to see if it is readable or not. Also, use White Space to give your text the breathing room they need to stand out on their own.

10. Test the Website on Different Mobile Devices 

Last but not least, the best top for creating mobile friendly website design is to test your work. Whatever you do with your website to make it more mobile friendly, test it on different mobile devices.

Practice makes perfect and testing makes better. So, your website’s true form and true potential are only reached when you test it over and over again and improve it each time.

Test it for user experience on both iOS and Android devices. Also, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to get the feedback you need to make your design a “mobile friendly website design.”

Why Choose Webnhubs to Create Mobile Friendly Website Design?

When it comes to creating the best mobile first design examples, no one does it better than Webnhubs.

Our Web and Mobile Design Agency is known for making the most intuitive, responsive, and user-friendly mobile websites.

We have a team of expert designers, and developers, who know all the ins and outs of a mobile website.

We practice what we preach and follow the best practices ourselves to create websites that work well on mobile devices.

If you need a mobile website that can take your business to new heights, then you need Webnhubs as your web design and development partner.

We will build a mobile website that everyone can use on their phones. So, partner with us now, and let us do the magic for you.

Wrapping It Up

That is it for this blog on mobile friendly website design folks. We hope that the ten tips and best practices we mentioned in this blog can help you create your own mobile friendly website design as well. After all, almost the entire web traffic on the internet is from mobile phones. So, it’s better to cash in some of that traffic for your business than miss out on it.

And if you need a helping hand to make your website design mobile friendly, then Webnhubs will do it for you. Our team will take over your project and help you get it done in no time. With us, you will have a partner that crosses the finish line with you, and looks after your website, all the way to the end.