Want to achieve a higher mobile conversion rate for your content? You need a responsive web design that meets Google’s mobile friendliness standards and showcases your content perfectly, no matter what device your customer uses to view it. Here are five keys to making your content more mobile responsive friendly and more successful.

Design for Mobile Viewing Patterns

Make sure your content accommodates the viewing patterns of mobile readers, who according to new research, consume content differently than desktop readers. The familiar Golden Triangle and F Pattern viewing patterns of desktop readers — where users’ eyes focus on the top left screen corner and move across or down — doesn’t apply to mobile content consumers.

Justin Briggs, a technical SEO and mobile marketing expert, digs into the Google research findings. In short, users’ eyes focus on the center and top half of mobile device screens. The top half of the screen gets 68% of viewers’ attention. Only 14% of viewers’ attention goes to the bottom third of mobile screen content.

Control Content Hierarchy

A responsive web design should help customers find and consumer the most relevant content, no matter the size of the screen. The challenge here is that different types of content compete for attention.

Research and consumer use data show over and over again that our eyes are drawn to images over text. That’s both a blessing and a curse. A striking image can engage viewers, but might distract from a call to action or other text-based content. On the other hand, too many calls to action grouped together could be off-putting and discourage content consumption.

Design and content teams need to work together to define a content hierarchy that balances information, visuals, and calls to action, without overwhelming or distracting readers.

Tighten Your Writing Style

Mobile content doesn’t have to be shorter, but it does have to be tighter. This can take several forms. Distilling and condensing long-winded blog posts, cutting down paragraphs, using simpler, stronger headlines, and front-loading content.

There’s nothing wrong with a 2,000-word blog post on mobile — as long as it’s focused and succinct. However, you may be able to satisfy more mobile users by condensing a rambly 2,000-word post into a tight 800 words.

Short paragraphs of only a sentence or two work great for mobile readers. Each paragraph should work as a complete idea, a cadence that gives momentum to the reader as they move through your content.

Streamlined headlines and front-loaded content blocks can capture more attention since this content fits into that upper two-thirds of the screen that mobile users will look at.

Pay Attention to Design Details

Beyond your writing, don’t let important design details like font size, text spacing, and button size fall through the cracks. These elements are crucial to readability and usability — two foundational benchmarks you must hit if you hope for your content to prompt action or close a sale.

Font size for body content should be large enough to read comfortably on a small device. Headlines should be larger, but not overpowering. Wider line spacing and paragraph spacing are necessary for readers to accurately select text and click on links. Buttons similarly have to be big enough for fat fingers to tap on the first try, despite a tiny screen.

Work Collaboratively for Success

Creating content marketing that’s more mobile responsive friendly won’t happen in a vacuum. Make sure to get all stakeholders and all involved departments working together to make it happen. Otherwise, glitches and usability problems will cause repeated iterations to get it right, wasting time and money. Sales, marketing, copywriting, web design, engineering, and the executive team all need work together. The result? Your responsive web design to work as intended the first time.

Ready to make your content more mobile responsive friendly? Call us at 313-338-9515 or email hello@kaleidico.com learn how our full-service digital marketing agency can help!