Optimize Your Mobile Website - AdWords In Under Five Minutes
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Rob discusses how to improve your mobile website and three actions you can take in your AdWords account to optimize for mobile customers!
00:21 Our first step is to ensure the load time of your mobile site is as swift as possible. When a mobile site or app is clumsy or slow, recent research finds about 29% of smartphone users will immediately switch to another site or app.
00:34 Even well designed websites can perform poorly if customers experience long load times, and we want to help you meet your potential customers’ need for speed.
00:43 A common question is how long is too long? In research looking at retail and travel sites, 40% of users left a website which took longer than 3 seconds to load.
00:53 Check out the Google Developers PageSpeed Insights tool here to find out how quickly your site loads and to identify ways to improve it.
00:59 The tool is simple: enter your website’s URL and you will receive a Page Speed and User Experience Score ranging from 0 to 100 points and you can select “Show how to fix” to see specific guidance for you or your developer to improve your performance.
1:14 In addition to speed, we’ve found that potential customers also expect to be able to find what they need from a mobile site easily and immediately.
1:22 Similar to the PageSpeed tool, check out the Google Developer’s Mobile Friendliness test to assess whether your site meets mobile friendliness criteria: which includes displaying readable text, using common software, sizing content so users don’t have to zoom, and placing links for easy tapping.
1:41 Once again, enter your website’s URL and you’ll receive tips and best practices to make your site mobile-friendly. The second step is to anticipate your customer’s needs on mobile so you can incorporate new features and relevant content to improve your mobile performance.
1:57 For example, if the majority of your users purchase a specific set of products, consider making a section of the site dedicated to best sellers so mobile searchers can easily access these high-priority products.
2:09 To drive potential customers to the site, we recommend placing important calls-to-action, such as requesting more information or adding an item to a shopping cart, in a prominent spot on your homepage.
2:21 Another idea is to try taking advantage of the built-in GPS capabilities of smartphones. According to research, 61 percent of smartphone users are more likely to buy from mobile sites and apps that customize information to where they are.
2:36 The last step, is to review and eliminate steps to simplify a user’s flow through your website. A step can include navigating through multiple screens or pages to the amount of buttons needed to achieve a goal on your website. The more steps it takes for a user to complete a desired action, like making a purchase, the more likely a user is to make an error or leave your website entirely.
2:57 To optimize the user flow, think about the goal of your mobile site or app. Your main goal may be to drive calls, store visits, sales, or form submissions. So start with that goal and think of how you can reduce the number of steps a user must take to reach it.
3:13 If phone calls are your primary goal, then consider displaying a click-to-call button to make connecting with your business a one-step process from any page of the site. For store visits, consider offering GPS-powered driving directions to bring users to your business. And for sales or form submissions, you could feature a one-click functionality to streamline the purchase or sign up process.
3:37 Now that we’ve looked at tools and tips for optimizing your mobile site, you can move onwards with mobile performance in mind! Once you’ve made improvements to your mobile web experience, there are three actions you can take in your AdWords account to capitalize on your mobile success!
3:52 First is to create mobile-optimized ads. You can customize ad text that is especially relevant for mobile users. Once you’ve written this special mobile ad, select the “Mobile” checkbox to let AdWords know this ad is optimized for mobile devices.
4:07 Second is to create mobile-optimized extensions. Similar to the “Mobile” checkbox for ads, you can make this selection for extensions like Sitelinks, which highlight different pages of your site, and Callouts, which extend your ads with a call to action.
4:22 And lastly, you can use a mobile bid adjustment, which increases your bid for mobile devices by a percentage, in order to reach these potential customers as they search on mobile devices.
4:32 Check out this video for step by step instructions to set up a mobile bid adjustment.