Why Mobile Optimized Website Matter
Mobile optimization is crucial in today's online world. Learn the key components to a great optimized website and ways to implement them on your site.
Why should you optimize your website?
Key components for strong mobile optimization
How to implement this on your website
Meeting your audience where they are
Picture this, your company’s holiday party is coming up. You have a secret santa that you must get a present for, and finally, after weeks of searching for the perfect present, you’ve found it. You click on the product website, ready to make a purchase and… you can’t see half of the page, and no amount of swiping will let you see the information you need. With a frustrated sigh of resignation, the search continues for a competing product with a website you can actually use.
Why should you optimize your website?
Optimizing your website for mobile devices is crucial in today's easily scrollable online world. Did you know that mobile devices account for 59.6% of all global web traffic? Even more so, desktop usage has declined by 7.2% year-over-year across the world. Optimizing your website for mobile devices doesn’t just mean ensuring it can accurately display on smaller screens, it means fully reformatting your site for mobile devices, making it intuitive and straightforward to navigate with smooth, responsive content. It’s eye-catching, consistent, and simplistic, offering an immersive experience to mobile users.
Mobile optimization centers around the user experience, increasing engagement rates and reducing bounce rates. In fact, mobile users are five times more likely to abandon a task if the website isn’t optimized for mobile? Additionally, 32% of customers say they would leave a brand they loved after just one bad experience? If you design a website that puts the user experience first and foremost, they’re more likely to engage with your content for a longer period of time. Clicking on a website that loads quickly, doesn’t overpower your senses, makes sense with where to go and what you can see, is something we all appreciate and should always strive to give our customers. Let’s take a look at three examples of brands across industries that have impressive mobile optimized websites.
Key components for strong mobile optimization
Now that we know what “mobile optimized” means, let’s dive deeper into what it looks like. There are three key design components that align with great mobile optimization: thumb-friendliness, responsiveness, and intuitive design.
Thumb-Friendly Design
Think about how users physically hold and interact with their mobile devices. They are most likely holding it in their hand, using their thumbs to navigate through the website, quickly and efficiently going where they need to go. Have you ever tried to click on a link, but your thumb misses it every time because it’s microscopic and hard to reach? This is a thumb-friendly design. Everything clickable should be larger and closer to the center. A fantastic example of this in action is The New York Times.
As one of the longest running newspapers in the country with over 11.8 million active news subscribers, The New York Times knows a thing or two about adapting to the ever-changing media landscape. Founded in 1851 as the New-York Daily Times, they began their distribution as a penny paper, striving to appeal to an intellectual readership rather than the masses. It was over a century of change later that The New York Times went digital. Seeing declining print sales throughout the 2000s, they adapted to the new digital landscape, and in 2008 became available on mobile devices. Currently, the majority of subscribers receive news digitally rather than print. Their experience with embracing change and meeting their subscribers where they are for the last nearly two centuries has primed them to understand the importance of making a great online experience. For The New York Times, it’s crucial to optimize for news consumption on smartphones while staying true to its brand.
Immediately, when a user enters their website on a mobile device, they’re greeted by a minimalist, smooth homepage mimicking their desktop website and print newspaper of a white background and the classic, black New York Times font and logo. This homepage features a large, bolded value proposition front and center: “We seek the truth and help people understand the world.” The commitment to keeping the brand consistent across all platforms (print, desktop, mobile) makes moving through the site as intuitive as flipping through a newspaper on Saturday morning. The brand has kept its users in mind with every single detail of the site, with broad, centered buttons easily within reach of busy subscribers’ thumbs, knowing they’re likely consuming their content on-the-go.
Responsive Design
Compared to desktops, mobile devices are more vertical and significantly smaller, so you need to have a responsive design to ensure users have a good experience on your website. This includes seamless, intuitive navigation, and a balance of white-space and high-quality visuals. Always think about how you can keep your users engaged without overwhelming them. Imagine what you want users to do once loading your website. Create a mobile experience that effortlessly and effectively guides them towards that goal. Have large, well-labeled calls to action at the top of the page and an intuitive navigation bar. Many prefer to err on the side of less text and more visuals. Nike
Nike has been a leader of sports innovation since it was founded in 1964. The slogan “Just do it” has led to iconic campaigns showing Nike has always been willing to think outside the box and unite their users with relatable ads centered around resilience and adaptability. The user-centered laser focus has allowed them to build an empire of loyal customers with over 300 million Nike members as of 2021. Where do most of their users shop? Online on their mobile devices, where Nike has curated a seamless shopping experience.
As a user enters the mobile website, it’s immediately easy to navigate. The toolbar in the top right corner has everything laid out: search, profile, shopping cart, and a hamburger style menu tool, which makes it simple for users to find exactly what they’re looking for. As you scroll, more high-quality formatted images showcase the brand’s featured products while leaving plenty of white space so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Further, you’ll see a carousel with different popular categories for them to explore. Finally, a minimalist and simplistic spotlight of their current popular products before the vertical bottom of the site menu.
Nike's mobile optimization makes the shopping experience interactive, incorporating high-quality, properly formatted images and bold buttons.The pages load immediately, and the simple design makes users want to keep looking through their website. The text is easy to read, with different text colors used to highlight new and sale products. Product images are consistent and minimalist. Additionally, there are only two products per row, making it easy for thumbs to reach anything they want to click on.All of these elements make Nike a leader in the mobile shopping experience.
Intuitive + Clear from Desktop to Mobile
Having clear and simple navigation elements that are similar to how it’s set up in the desktop version means less time and frustration for your users trying to find what they’re looking for. If a user opens up a site on mobile, and it has a similar layout from the desktop, they’ll realize they can find what they need regardless of the device. That keeps them coming back to your site for more.
Airbnb has grown into a giant that has revolutionized the hospitality industry. Their initial vision to connect property owners with long and short-term renters has turned into a nearly $74 billion dollar enterprise, influencing the travel economy and bringing about new products like “Airbnb Experiences.” As of 2025, Airbnb boasts over 8 million active listings across 220+ countries, hosted by more than 5 million people worldwide. To retain these users, Airbnb created a digital experience with its website and app, creating a seamless user experience across mediums.
The Airbnb mobile site is a well formatted version of the desktop website. The website incorporates a navigable menu and engaging search bar with the call to action "start your search.” The white space allows the user’s eyes to be attracted to the high-quality images and bold lettering with a legible typeface describing each listing, without getting overwhelmed. The formatting of each home or experience fits well within the mobile screen, without anything being off screen. The user experience is top tier.
How to implement this on your website
As you think about these examples, consider what elements make them uniquely optimized for mobile devices. How does one implement these optimization principles into their own website to continue attracting and retaining visitors?
1. Display larger navigation buttons: Large buttons guide the user’s eye quickly to the things they need. The menu, call-to-action buttons, icon buttons, and share buttons need to be large enough for thumbs to easily tap. Most people are holding their phone in a way that they are only using their thumbs to navigate, so positioning buttons in areas that are comfortable to reach is paramount.
2. Optimize images for screen size: Optimizing images to fit within the smaller mobile device screens ensures your users are able to see everything without frustration or a bad experience, which can lead to a higher bounce rate and less engagement. Making responsive images is crucial to not only create an aesthetically pleasing site, but engage users and encourage them to return.
3. Mobile-first: Put as much effort into your mobile design as your desktop design. This ensures you are putting down a solid foundation for the most common user experience.
4. Clear and concise content: Keep your text brief. You don’t want your users to get bored reading through an essay of a homepage and bounce, you want them to quickly understand what your website is about and keep their attention. This also means putting the most important content above the fold so they see that first and foremost when they load your site.
Meeting your audience where they are
In our current world of information being consumed mainly from our mobile devices, it is important more than ever to ensure that you’re reaching the majority of your users where they’re at: on their phones. Adapting to meet your audience where they are, ensures they click, stay, and return to your website and business.