If your site has a responsive design, you might think your visitors can enjoy your articles just as much on desktop as on mobile. But that's not enough.
Of course, your site will pass Google's “mobile-friendly” test, but our way of reading is not the same on a large computer screen as on a smartphone. Consequently, an article that's very readable on one device may not be on another and can be much less engaging.
Knowing that Google created the Mobile-First Index and prioritizes (regardless of the device used) results from the mobile index, it's essential to have a blog designed for mobile. And for that, your content must also be designed for mobile.
Here are 8 things you absolutely need to consider to create text suited to reading on mobile.
1. Center the content
To create mobile-friendly content, you must first understand how people read on mobile devices. There are a few key differences between reading on desktop and reading on mobile.
On desktop, many studies have shown that users focus on the top-left corner of the screen — a habit linked in particular to the layout of Google search results.
But on mobile, that no longer applies: users mainly look at the center of their screen, as illustrated by the image below.
On mobile, therefore, it's in your interest to center your content to make it naturally more readable for your visitors.
2. Don’t use too many images
On mobile, images can quickly take up a lot of space (and even occupy the entire screen) where on desktop the extra space allows them to be better integrated into the text. Moreover, photos are known to catch the eye more than words.
This is a problem for your readers, because too many images can distract them from the text and make them lose the thread — while the real value of your content lies in the text.
To avoid this, don't overuse images and make sure they don't take up too much space.
3. Don’t sacrifice length
It's tempting to believe that mobile is only suited to short, quick-to-read texts. In reality, long articles (over 1000 words) are visited just as often as shorter articles on mobile:
Let's also remember that the length of an article (or any other content) is an important factor for its SEO (search engine optimization).
In short, don't limit yourself in the length of your content, even if you have a large mobile audience, but do be concise (which is not a synonym for "short"). Being concise means getting rid of the superfluous: banish filler phrases and endless circumlocutions to get to the point.
4. Use short paragraphs
On mobile, readers have low attention spans and it's a real challenge to manage to keep them engaged.
That's why it's essential to pace your text by dividing it into short paragraphs. An article will be much more readable and engaging if it's broken into small chunks of a few lines each.
5. Structure your content
On mobile, the screen size is much smaller, which makes reading large blocks of text even more unpleasant. To make reading easier for your mobile users, the first thing to work on is your content structure.
You should therefore aim to divide your text into several sections.
However, this division must be coherent: in short, develop one idea per paragraph. That way, your reader will interpret each small paragraph as something new, which will maintain their interest.
6. Space out your text
If dividing your article into paragraphs serves to structure your text coherently, it also helps to give your content more breathing room.
Again, the size of a mobile device's screen is limiting since everything is more "crowded" and your text can quickly turn into an indigestible block.
Also don't hesitate to choose an airy typeface: if it's too compact, that is, if the words and spacing are tight, readability will be particularly poor on mobile.
Skip lines, let your text breathe, and you'll offer a much better reading experience on mobile.
7. Use even shorter headlines
It is recommended to use fairly short, punchy titles. Titles of around six words appear to get the best click-through rates on mobile. In addition, this way your titles won’t be truncated.
Similarly, it is recommended to avoid putting a summary at the start of the article. While this practice is widespread, these summaries are often too long to be read, especially on mobile. However, if they are truly concise, they can be useful.
These short summaries can also be kept on desktop but hidden on mobile.
8. Run tests
The best way to know if your blog post is mobile-friendly is to test it. Remember to regularly check your blog posts by opening them on your smartphone. Do the same for your blog and, more generally, for the rest of your site. This will help you spot areas that remain difficult to navigate on small screens or buttons and links that are hard to tap.
With these 8 tips, you can optimize the display of your articles on mobile devices and thus increase their effectiveness to internet users — increasingly numerous — who read on their phones.
Of course, these few tips do not replace the quality and usefulness of your text: hire a professional freelance writer on Redacteur.com.
