Multi-Screen Compatibility
MULTI-SCREEN COMPATIBILITY
Multi-Screen Compatibility describes a website that can be accessed on a desktop, as well as hand-held devices like mobile phones and tablets.
Mobile
Friendly
The mobile-friendliness of a website refers to its ability to display optimally on smart phones. In most cases, these sites would have separate URLs for the mobile friendly version of the website.
About the Test
The test validates whether the business website is optimized for smart phones or multimedia phones.
Why is this test conducted?
Statistics show that more and more users today are accessing the web on their mobile devices. 94% of people with smartphones in the United States search for local information on their phones.
Source: ThinkwithGoogle
For UK: From Google, 74% of users will return to a website again if it is properly optimized for mobile usage.
Source: GoMedia.com
How do we check for this?
BuzzBoard checks mobile compatibility through a Google API. If nothing is found, then it checks for the presence of Viewport or Standard codes in the CSS Files.
What can I do about it?
BuzzBoard checks mobile compatibility through a Google API. If nothing is found, then it checks for the presence of Viewport or Standard codes in the CSS Files.
Consider the following tips to make a more effective mobile friendly website:
- Use optimized images that are clear and impactful, but not too complex at smaller sizes.
- The font and button sizes significantly impact the experience in mobile devices. It is recommended that you use a font size of least 14px. This may seem big but it actually makes it easier for visitors to read content on your site and spares the need to zoom in for better legibility.
- Signal Google everytime a page is formatted for mobile. This helps Google accurately serve your content to mobile searchers in its search results.
- Avoid featuring unplayable videos (e.g., Flash videos as the page’s significant content). Mobile pages that provide a poor search experience can be demoted in rankings or displayed with a warning in mobile search results.
Source: ThinkwithGoogle
FAQ(s)
Understand the difference between devices and their browser experience:
Mobile: Smartphones are devices running software such as Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone. Mobile browsers are similar to desktop browsers, although their screen size is smaller.
Tablets: Tablets are just like Smartphones, but tend to have larger screens. Unless the site is tablet-optimized, users expect to see your site as it would look on a desktop browser, rather than a smartphone browser.
Multimedia phones: Mobiles phones are equipped with browsers that 3G-ready phones; however, they are not smartphones. These may not support some of the API extension in the HTML5 standard.
Feature phones: These are mobiles phones with browsers that lack the capability to render normal desktop webpages coded using standard HTML.
Responsive
Design
A responsive web design is an approach that involves the development of a site, so that it responds to the user’s behavior, screen size, platform, and orientation of the device being used. A responsive design is a combination of flexible grids, layouts, images, and an intelligent use of CSS media queries.
About the Test
This checks if the website is designed to be responsive on different devices and screen sizes.
Why do we check for this?
This helps determine a website's response when one switches from their laptop or desktop to an iPad. A responsive website should automatically adjust the device's resolution, image size, and scripting abilities to yield the intended user experience. 94% of people with smart phones in the United States search for local information on their phones.
Source: ThinkwithGoogle
For UK: From Google, 74% of users will return to a websit again if it is properly optimized for mobile usage.
Source: GoMedia.com
How do we check for this?
BuzzBoard checks for the presence of Viewport, Media Queries, CSS files, and import URLs to evaluate the degree of responsive design.
What can I do about it?
Consider the following tips to design a more responsive website:
-
Decide what elements to include on small screens.
The goal of a responsive design is not to replicate the desktop version of the design on other devices, but to ensure a similar user experience on a smaller screen. It can be helpful to identify the most essential bits of information you want seen first. It is wise to condense menus or navigational options into a button that can be expanded at a single tap. -
Optimize Images.
Using high resolution images, bandwidth saving tools, and adaptive images with the formats, such as WebP and JPEG XR, can add to the responsiveness of your website. -
Control the loading of CSS and JavaScript.
Combining both desktop and mobile CSS and JavaScript files into one set can impact performance. Instead, branch the load by using JavaScript to determine the width of the page, then request specific styles to that width.
FAQ(s)
What does a responsive website look like?
A responsive website is easy to read through and browse on any device. Some good indicators of a responsive website is the absence of a horizontal scroll bar and properly shrunk text contents so the website can fit the new screen size.
Page
Speed Score for Mobile Websites
The page speed score is based on "page load time." (This can be defined as the time it takes to fully display content on a specific page).
About the Test
Measures the speed of a webpage on mobile
Why do we check for this?
Websites with slow pages discourage users and search engines from exploring your site. Website speed is used as a criterion in search engine rankings.
How do we check for this?
The business' website is checked against a BuzzBoard
connection to a page speed score API. If a score
is detected, the data is summarized based on the
following signs: -
Check = Greater than 80
Caution = Between 60 and 79
Cross = Less than 60
What can I do about it?
To help a prospect get a better Page Speed Score:
- Continue to optimize all the website images.
- Continue to replicate large Flash plug-ins with HTML5 for a quicker load time.
FAQ(s)
What is the ideal page speed score for a website?
A Page Speed Score of 90 and above is considered good, and between 50 and 89 is okay. If the score is below 50, there is a need to take corrective action.
What could be the reasons a website is slower?
Server performance and location, extra-large images, code density, text graphics, abundant plug-ins, and unnecessary redirects are some of the leading causes that lead to a slow website.
Migrating to better platforms for a faster performing website could also enhance website speed.
For additional training opportunities contact Phillip
Cortez -
phillip@buzzboard.com
