How To Optimise Your Website For Mobile Users

By Neil Kilgallon on Monday, 31 March 2025

Accessing websites via mobile devices increases year-on-year. *As of early 2025, mobile devices account for approximately 62% of global website traffic, a steady increase from previous years, reflecting the growing reliance on smartphones for internet access.

If you don’t optimise your website for mobile, you will miss out on a massive user base. A combination of poor user experience, SEO rankings, and engagement will result in visitors not finding your website or abandoning it and searching for your competitors.

ID Studio is a web design company that specialises in developing websites that are optimised for mobile devices. This article will outline some practical steps we use to enhance your website's mobile friendliness.

* Source: StatCounter Global Stats, "Mobile vs Desktop vs Tablet Market Share Worldwide," January 2025 (statcounter.com).

Understanding Mobile Optimisation

Mobile optimisation refers to the process of tailoring a website’s design, functionality, and performance to deliver a seamless and intuitive experience specifically for users accessing it via smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile optimisation ensures that content adjusts dynamically to smaller screens, touch-based navigation, and varying network conditions, prioritising usability and efficiency over aesthetics.

Before 2010, mobile phone usage was primarily for calls, text messages, and basic Internet browsing. The majority of eCommerce happened on desktop computers, where users had large screens and a steady internet connection. This started to shift with the introduction of the iPhone, which incorporated touchscreens, faster 4G networks, and the app ecosystem. By 2016, mobile phone browsing usage had surpassed that of desktops.

In 2025, 5G networks, mobile wallets (e.g., Apple Pay), and AI personalisation (e.g., voice search) will enhance the mobile shopping experience. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram integrate seamless buying options, with 55% of users purchasing directly via social media. Shoppers use phones in-store for price checks and reviews, blurring the lines between online and offline shopping.

* Google’s mobile-first indexing will be fully effective in 2025. 70% of top-ranking websites have been optimised for mobile, directly influencing their SEO performance.

* Source: Search Engine Journal, "2025 SEO Trends: Mobile-First Indexing Impact," February 2025 (searchenginejournal.com).

Optimising your website for mobile is necessary in a world where consumers live on their phones.

The Key Elements Of A Mobile-Optimised Website

When the ID Studio team builds a website, we adopt a mobile-first approach, focusing on eight core aspects of design and development.

1. Responsive Design

The design must seamlessly adapt to various screen sizes and orientations using flexible layouts, grids, and media queries, ensuring content looks polished on phones, tablets and other media.

2. Fast Loading Speed

Prioritises lightweight files, optimised images, and minimal code to deliver pages in under 3 seconds. *Websites that take over 3 seconds to load risk losing 50% of site traffic.

Source: Google, "The Need for Mobile Speed," updated 2024 data referenced in 2025 industry reports (thinkwithgoogle.com).

3. Touch-Friendly Navigation

The website must feature large, tappable buttons and simplified menus designed for fingertips, avoiding the frustration of misclicks or hidden options.

4. Readable Typography

It uses legible font sizes (minimum 16px), ample spacing, and high-contrast text to ensure the content is easy on the eyes without requiring constant zooming in.

5. Streamlined Content

Cuts clutter with concise copy, collapsible sections, and prioritised visuals, delivering what users need without overwhelming small screens.

6. Optimised Media

It employs compressed images, adaptive video players, and lazy loading to balance quality with performance, catering to mobile data constraints.

7. Accessible Features

It incorporates screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and clear focus states, making the site usable for all, regardless of ability or device.

8. Mobile-Specific Functionality

The website uses mobile device features like GPS for location-based services, click-to-call buttons, or camera integration.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

While the above outlines ways to make your website as mobile-friendly as possible, we’re often asked to redesign websites because they are unsuitable for mobile devices, and these are a few of the issues we see all too often:

The most common mistake we are asked to fix is failing to implement a flexible layout that adapts to different screen sizes. This results in a site that looks distorted or requires excessive scrolling and pinching on mobile devices.
Overloading the site with unoptimised images, heavy scripts, or uncompressed files causes delays that frustrate users.
A frustrating issue that often occurs when websites are not optimised for mobile is using buttons, links, or form fields that are too small or close together. This makes it hard for users to tap accurately without zooming or accidentally hitting the wrong option.
Similar to the above point, it is common to forget to optimise forms. Small input fields or no autofill support can be a headache for mobile users.
Pop-ups are bad enough on a desktop but are even more frustrating for mobile users. Avoid pop-ups as much as possible.

Conclusion

Several years ago, you might have gotten away with a website that wasn’t 100% mobile-friendly, but that ship has long sailed. Mobile usage when visiting websites exploded and continues to grow with no signs of slowing down. Ensuring your website works perfectly across mobile devices is no longer an option - it’s a starting point.

To discuss any mobile-related issues with your website, arrange a call with ID Studio.