The Critical Nature of Mobile Responsive Websites

The way the Internet is accessed has changed significantly over the last few years. If your website is not mobile-friendly, it will dramatically affect not only the user experience, but also the potential for high rankings on search engines. Smartphone and tablet users experiencing difficulty loading or viewing your content will be less likely to spend time on the site, convert to an inquiry/purchase/transaction and most detrimentally, will be more likely to visit your competitor’s website.

Mobile responsiveness simply means that a website’s content will automatically adapt to whatever screen size it is viewed on. In other words, the appearance of your homepage should be close to the same on a desktop monitor as it displays on a smartphone screen. Links have to be spaced appropriately and call-to-action (CTAs) buttons have to be larger so users will not have issues clicking on a small screen that has less precision for “clicking”. It is most desirable for the audience to have a similar experience (or as similar as possible) with your website regardless of what device they are viewing it on.

Mobile Marketing Statistics:

• 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website. (socPub)
• Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
• 68% of companies have integrated mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy. 
• Over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product while conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2018)

If a company website is not mobile-friendly, it will not rank well on search engines. In 2018, Google rolled out an algorithm change that indexes websites based on their mobile version, placing priority over the desktop version. In addition to the new indexing model, a large factor in website rankings is now based on mobile loading speed. Slower loading sites may be penalized with up to a 50% lower ranking! The net effect is if your site loads slower for mobile or is not mobile friendly, your competitors will surge ahead on search results.

Google Analytics, a web analytics tool, provides detailed data on how many users are accessing your site and the device they are using. Google also provides a service to test your website for mobile responsiveness here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly. These are free tools that can help you better understand user dynamics, behavior and characteristics.

Focusing on mobile responsiveness with mobile optimization as the end goal not only adds validity and relevance to your website, but it generates higher customer satisfaction through ease of use. X-Factor Web Marketing specializes in helping businesses stay up-to-date with best practices of mobile-responsive website design and ongoing website maintenance. Contact X-Factor if you need a website audit, a new mobile-friendly website design, or simply need help maintaining your digital presence.