Having a mobile responsive site is no longer an added bonus when designing your website, it is a fundamental necessity. There are several key factors that have made mobile sites an essential tool in connecting with your audience:
Most internet usage is mobile
It is almost hard to believe, but reports conducted in 2014 [http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/majority-of-digital-media-consumption-now-takes-place-in-mobile-apps/] found that 60% of internet usage is a result of people browsing the web on mobile devices. The remaining 40% being made up by desktop users. Mobile digital media consumption is the preference for today’s consumers and if you have not designed a website that is mobile responsive, you are sure to miss out!
Key to search engine rankings
As with any business, search engines like Google are keen to provide the best possible service to their users. And given the trend of people searching the web on their mobile phone, it is not surprising that search engines have chosen to promote sites that are designed for mobile. Google’s Hummingbird update made it perfectly clear that the future of search is mobile – those websites that are not usable on handheld devices are already suffering.
Improved customer experience
“Multi-screening” is now very common amongst internet users with 90% of people saying that they move between devices to complete a task online [http://resources.mobify.com/50-mobile-commerce-stats.html]. By ensuring that your website’s functionality is consistent across both desktop and mobile devices, you are able to earn the trust of your customers. Equally important is an efficient service, with nearly 60% of internet users abandoning a site if it takes more than three seconds to load – resulting in a high bounce rate that will do further damage to your search engine ranking. So, if you fail to cater to your customers’ mobile needs, you are simply surrendering potential business to your competitors.
Key for conversions
Clunky websites have never performed well and desktop websites viewed on a mobile browser are incredibly ineffective. Hidden call to action buttons and hard to click links are just two of the many infuriating symptoms of viewing a desktop site on your mobile. Such an unresponsive website does not create the kind of impression your business needs to make online and its ability to convert visitors is almost non-existent.
Mobile internet consumption is already huge and it will only get bigger from here, so make sure your website is optimised for mobile!