There is nothing worse than having a beautiful PC website and a mobile website that does not work properly.
Most of the design fixes are simple, but need attention if you want visitors to stay on your site while they are browsing on a mobile device.
This article will walk you through seven mobile-optimized website problems and how to fix them.
- My changes are not displayed on mobile devices
- Unfriendly navigation
- Responsive layout suddenly stops working
- Images take too long to load
- The most important information is not obvious
- Too much information
- Data for small screens
Mobile website updates not appearing
You’ve just spent a lot of time updating your website. They look great on your computer, but they don’t display on a mobile device.
One of the most common reasons is caching. Your mobile browser may display the old version of your site that you downloaded earlier. Another reason might be that your website is keeping an old version of your page and not displaying your changes.
If this is a problem, you need to clear the cache in order to download the patched version. A caching plugin like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, or WP Fastest Cache can help solve this problem.
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Below are four steps to help you clear your website cache and browser so the new version is displayed on your mobile site.
- Refresh your browser several times on your computer and mobile device.
- Test your site on different mobile devices.
- Clean up your site with a caching plugin.
- Check with your hosting company if your server needs to be cleaned up.
Unfriendly Navigation
Building a navigation menu that works well on mobile can be challenging. If your website navigation is full of items and submenus, it’s even more difficult to fit everything into a smaller screen.
For example, if you only have three or four elements in your site navigation, it should look good on mobile. However, if you have more items and submenus, they will stack on top of each other and look crowded.
Here are a few ways to fix this issue for a mobile-optimized website:
- Turn navigation into a drop-down menu for mobile.
- Renders navigation menus as block elements so they are displayed vertically.
- Use the toggle menu icon to take up less space.
- Create a mobile navigation menu using jQuery.
- Use the Hamburger menu (many themes include this as an option, or you can use a plugin
Responsive Formatting Shuts Down
If your mobile-optimized site suddenly stops working, it could be due to a plugin on your site.
Installing a new plugin or updating an existing plugin can cause conflicts with others, affecting your responsive layout.
Start by deactivating each plugin one at a time to see if this is the cause. Don’t disable them all at once, otherwise you won’t know which plugin might be to blame.
Another possible reason is code changes. If you accidentally or intentionally change any code, restore your original code base and see if your responsive website starts working again.
When testing your site for mobility, you should always test it on a mobile device.
Sometimes this seems to work when the browser window is resized on the desktop, but it does not appear on mobile devices.
If one line of code is missing from the HTML header file, it can break responsive design. This single line of missing code will make your mobile device assume that the site you are viewing is full size.
The displayed site will be the size of the viewport (the size of the area of ??the web page visible to the user).
To fix a mobile-optimized site, add the following line of code to the header section:
Sometimes, when updating the theme, this code may disappear.
It takes too long to upload photos
Optimizing images and reducing image file size makes sense. Large images that are not optimized can slow down the loading speed of your web pages. This can be frustrating for mobile users.
WordPress 4.4 and above automatically serves the smallest version of the image on your server.
If you are already using the latest version of WordPress, but your site is still not loading fast enough, you can:
- install a plugin like Smush Image Optimization, Compression and Lazy Load to resize and optimize Images.
- Use a compression and optimization tool before uploading images to your site, such as TinyPNG, Compress JPEG, or Online Image Optimizer
The most important content is not clear
Some websites are loaded with a lot of unnecessary content to fill up empty space when opened on the desktop.
Websites designed without mobile users generally fall into this category. These sites take more time and traffic to load.
If the pages are not designed for mobile devices, then some of the content may not display on mobile devices without large scrolling.
In most cases, an element on your web page will look the same on a computer but completely different on a mobile device.
For example, on a pricing page with three columns, they will appear side by side on your computer.
However, on mobile, the columns overlap because the screen size is smaller. This behavior was to be expected.
Make sure the pricing table is at the top of your web page so it appears first when viewed on a mobile device. If you have a lot of text above the table, mobile users may or may not have to scroll down to see it.
For the best mobile experience, place your most important pieces of content at the top of the page. If a user has to scroll a lot before they can view your content, they probably won’t.
Too Much Information
Sites with complex user interface elements such as tables, multi-step forms, and advanced search functionality can be inconvenient for mobile users.
These elements contain too much information that can overwhelm the mobile phone screen and prevent the user from finding the information they want.
One approach is to remove or hide some of the content from mobile users. However, this is not an ideal solution for visitors who want to have access to these elements.
To avoid this problem, optimize your site for mobile devices as much as possible. Also, remove all unnecessary elements by focusing on the basic structure of your website.
Data for Small Screens
Complex tables with many rows and columns can be problematic when viewed on small screens on mobile devices. The best solution is to use responsive tables.
A plugin like WP Responsive Table can make this task easier.
As with the pricing table above, when viewed on a mobile device, the columns will be stacked to fit the smaller screen.
Other ways to display data on mobile devices:
- Create a smaller table without a grid layout to avoid the need for horizontal scrolling.
- Flips the table to its side to fit better on a smaller screen.
- Replace large tables with smaller tables that reference the full version.
- Convert tables to pie charts.
As the use of mobile devices grows exponentially, it is imperative that business websites are optimized for mobile versions. Improve the user experience without sacrificing functionality by following the steps above.
You should also always monitor the performance of your site and make changes as needed to improve performance and user experience.
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