Post No. 23
Why Your Website Needs to be Mobile-Friendly
You’re probably not surprised that 77% of Americans own a smartphone. And there’s a good chance you’re part of the 51% of shoppers who make purchases on their smartphone. Whether we’re looking for the perfect pair of shoes or the name of that one celebrity in that one movie, most of us rely on our mobile devices to help us find whatever we’re looking for.
People are online and on their phones more than ever. As a business owner, these statistics are staggering compared to where we were a few years ago. Knowing how vital your online presence is to your business’s success, it is essential that you make mobile users a priority. You can do this by designing your website to be mobile-friendly.
What does mobile-friendly mean?
Have you ever visited a website on your smartphone, only to have to scroll horizontally to read a paragraph? Or maybe you had to zoom in to read the text because it was so small? These website versions may have worked well on a desktop, but they didn’t adapt to your mobile device. Non mobile-friendly websites lead to frustration and less-than-positive user experiences.
Mobile-friendly websites adapt to different screen sizes, providing a seamless user experience from device to device. You design elements of each page to work well for various devices, from desktops to smartphones. This can mean smaller images for smaller screens, different menu icons, resized headers and footers, and more.
We designed the website below to be mobile-friendly, responsive and adaptive. The image on the left shows how the website displays for desktop users, and the image on the right shows how it displays for mobile users. You can see the difference in the main graphic, the menu items, and the website header.
Why does mobile-friendly matter?
User experience. First and foremost, mobile-friendly websites make life easy for anyone browsing your website. If we’re honest, most people won’t even realize that your website is mobile-friendly. But we can guarantee they’ll notice if it isn’t! Don’t risk turning people away before they can even read what you’re all about.
Google knows (and cares). This is a biggie. In 2015, Google’s algorithm began ranking mobile-friendly websites higher than non-mobile websites. In 2016, Google announced that it would rank and index web pages based off of a site’s mobile version, rather than its desktop version. Google rolled out this mobile-first index towards the end of 2017, and will continue to implement it until it applies to every domain. In a nutshell, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites because it knows that the majority of users are on their mobile devices. If you want your website to continue (or begin) to rank well, it must be mobile-friendly.
Do you see the importance of mobile-friendly websites? They really aren’t optional if you want people to see and use your website in our digital age. Mobile-friendly websites lead to happy users, which can lead to more engagement and conversions.
Not sure if your website is mobile-friendly? Paste your website URL into Google’s free mobile-friendly test to find out instantly. Don’t freak out if it isn’t. Contact us and we can get your website mobile-friendly in no time.
