Why Your Mobile Website Experience Matters
Increase your business web presence and expand your bottom line by providing a mobile responsive website.
Spend the day noticing the people around you. You’ll probably be shocked at how many people are staring at their cell phones – even on the commute to work; you’ll see people blatantly breaking the laws with a smartphone. Talking and texting have taken a backseat to mobile web surfing. Nowadays. 53 percent of people are using their mobile devices to browse the web and search for businesses and services. The number is expected to grow even more, which means that your mobile business website matters more than ever before.
Importance of a Mobile-Friendly Website
Website mobile-friendly is a phrase that is commonly bantered about. Still, it is imperative that people have a mobile website for shopping or locate a brick-and-mortar company offering services in the user’s geographic location.
Ideally, a mobile site should provide the following:
- Easy navigation with pinch to zoom and scroll sideways features
- Fast loading
- Easy-to-use
Digital Marketing and Mobile Use
In the last year, businesses have experienced phenomenal growth. Users are browsing from their tablets, desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. An eCommerce site must ready itself for mobile use and digital marketing to stay ahead of the competition. Everything from the landing page to the checkout process needs to function and provide mobile-friendliness
- Studies show that 75 percent of customers start their shopping experience using their mobile devices. They would then either physically visit the store or make a purchase via a desktop site in some cases.
- A Shopify study revealed that 69 percent of shoppers for 2019 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales use their mobile devices to make a purchase, and only 31 percent use their desktop.
- Conversions are at an all-time high and substantially increased throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shopping from home.
There is no end in sight to website mobile presence, and they will continue to drive the market. Businesses have to be ready to tailor their digital advertising and IT design to become more mobile-friendly.
What is a Mobile-Friendly Website?
Think of a mobile-friendly website as a regular website only pint-sized, so it fits on a phone screen. It has similar features, colors, designs, and perks to the large website but is smaller. You can easily zoom, pinch or scroll using your phone without missing out on anything. However, mobile-friendly websites are quickly becoming dinosaurs as mobile-optimized. They tailor, and responsive designs replace them.
However, not all mobile websites are the same, and many people become confused. A common question that smartphone users and business owners ask is, “What’s the difference between mobile-friendly, mobile-optimized, and responsive design?”
» Mobile-Friendly Site
A mobile-friendly site is designed to be compatible for mobile users. It is a desktop version only slimmed down, but it does have mobile responsiveness. It is not as user-friendly, functional, or has the precise design appearance of the full website. Also, it sometimes runs into problems, such as when a user wants to click on an item, but the items are located too close together due to font size. Honestly, a mobile-friendly website meets Google’s minimum requirements for a mobile site, and it will not rank as high as a mobile-optimized or mobile responsive site.
» Mobile-Optimized
A mobile-optimized website has been designed for the much smaller screen size of a smartphone. It boasts a mobile-first approach that makes the site easy to navigate using your smartphone. Research shows that 80 percent of eCommerce shoppers prefer to purchase from mobile-optimized sites because it’s easier.
Becoming mobile-optimized requires an It or a digital marketing agency with experience. The site must meet the standards of Google, which are as follows:
- Website with a single-column layout that is thumb-friendly.
- Larger touchpoints
- Focused call to action button that is clickable.
- Simple navigation
- Optimized graphics
- Uncluttered site design
- Spacing and formatting to people UX and readability
» Mobile Responsive
A mobile responsive website reformats and restructures itself to fit mobile devices and the different screen sizes. The optimization tells the website that a mobile device is being used to view it. The website then responds by reformatting its dimensions to fit the phone. Websites that are mobile responsive will scale to meet the needs of the smallest phone size to a tablet to a large desktop screen. The mobile responsive website provides optimum usability.
Why Does the Mobile Website Experience Matter, and Why is it so Important?
Any business has to think about the impact they make on visitors. You want to drive traffic to your website to increase conversions and grow your bottom line. Suppose a visitor is using their smartphone to look at your website, and the site lacks usability. In that case, the user will quickly navigate away from your business website and go to your competition. Clearly, the impact on profitability is extreme.
Websites that are Mobile Friendly Experience Greater Conversions
HubSpot’s “Mobile Marketing Grader” has found that only three out of 10 websites are genuinely mobile-friendly. If you provide a mobile-friendly website, then you’ll benefit from greater conversions. Buyers or potential customers/clients who visit your website using their mobile device will not navigate away and go to a mobile-friendly site because they found yours lacking.
Higher Rank on Google. The algorithms of Google are constantly changing, and now they are focused on embracing websites that cater to mobile users. Your website will rank okay if it is mobile-friendly, better if it is mobile optimized, and very well if it is mobile responsive.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, it will not rank in a Google search carried out by a smartphone.
» Mobile Experience Customers
With the vast majority of customers using their mobile devices to peruse products, make purchases, and find geo-localized businesses, it is imperative that you make sure they can quickly locate and navigate your website, or you will lose out on their potential business.
» Creating a Mobile-Friendly Website
If you want to create a mobile-friendly website, you’ll need to start converting your current site. Website conversion does take time and knowledge. You want your website to be well-designed, coded, search engine optimized, and with a database-driven content management system (CMS). You might be able to update your site’s existing page templates, or you would need a complete overhaul. Either way, you should definitely consider reaching out to a professional website design company like GoMarketing to carry out the entire upgrade.
» Design a Separate Mobile Site?
You can opt to design a separate mobile site that is optimized for handheld devices like smartphones and tablets, or you can focus on changing your main site to a more responsive design that will scale to screen size when a mobile user visits it.
In some cases, you might be better off building a separate mobile site. Still, typically, most sites opt to tailor their current site to meet the needs of mobile users so that it occurs across all devices, whether the shopper uses a large desktop or a smartphone. Yes, it will take more to develop such a site but once complete, it will provide superior efficiency, and it’s easier to maintain one site versus two.
» Expanding Your Website’s Mobile Functions
Ultimately, you want to provide a smooth, frictionless, and easy experience for your visitors, whether via mobile or desktop. You want to drive traffic to your website to increase the conversions, so you expand your bottom line. If you opt to invest in improving your site’s capabilities to embrace mobile use, then you’ll ultimately enjoy a better rate of return on investment (ROI).
As with any business endeavor, you’ll need to factor in price points to decide if creating a mobile-optimized website with a responsive design is worth investment. However, mobile users will only increase, and you risk being overtaken by your competition if you do not embrace mobile users.
» Mobile Site Considerations
Not all mobile websites are created equal. You’ll want to consider these essential mobile responsive features when opting to cater to mobile users.
Responsiveness:
- People are notoriously lazy. No one wants to wait around while a website loads. You want the website to respond quickly to mobile users’ requests, or you risk them navigating away from the page.
- Thumbs-Friendly Layout: Make sure that mobile users can click on things using their thumbs. Navigation menus and CTAs should all be easy to use.
- Live chat: Let mobile users opt to use live chat if they have questions.
- Payments: Mobile-friendly payment integrations are a necessity, such as PayPal, Amazon, and Google Pay.
- Visuals: Pay attention to visuals. You want to capture your visitor’s interests.
If you seek a digital marketing agency specializing in mobile web design, please contact GoMarketing by calling 805-413-7893 to learn more about our services.