The mobile device is now such an important part of our lives, we cannot leave the house without it. It fast becoming our go to device for searching the net.Scarily enough, there are now more mobile devices on earth then there are people. So, if you haven’t already got a mobile friendly website, you are already missing out on customers and sales. Luckily enough the are many professionals in web design out there such as the team at Fabric, who offer responsive web design in Auckland.
It is important to meet the needs of the modern consumer. More and more searches and purchases are being made on mobile devices each day. But if your site is not optimized for mobile devices, users won’t give you the time of day and will move onto the next website.
What Does It Mean to Be Mobile Friendly?
According to Google, 94% of people use smartphones to search for local information. A regular desktop site that is not mobile-friendly will be difficult to read and use on a mobile device. Main elements that need to be considered for mobile sites are load time, text size, strong call to actions and ease of navigation.
Here are 5 reasons it is as important as ever to have a mobile friendly website:
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More Purchases Occurringon Mobile Devices Than Desktop Computers
It is no wonder that more online purchases now occur on mobile devices than desktop computers. As more than 1.2 billion people use their smartphone to access the internet each day. These users prefer to make purchases on their mobile devices, due to the convenience. Almost 30% of all e-commerce transactions are now made on mobile devices. So, if your website is not optimized for mobile users you are missing out on valuable conversions and sales. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to spend money and complete the sale. The ease of use of your website on all devices is vital to the amount of transactions made on your site.
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Have Competitive Advantage
More and more businesses understand the importance of mobile friendly websites to attracting customers and making sales. But still around 50% of websites are still not optimized for mobile use. An easy way to gain a competitive advantage against your competitors a mobile friendly website. It has been found that 40% of users will leave your site immediately if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.So, to easily gain a foot up against your competitors, it is vital to have a mobile friendly website, to take advantage of the users bouncing off from your competitors non-optimized websites.
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Google Favours Mobile Friendly Sites
Having a mobile friendly website also helps to improve how your website ranks on search engines. Nowadays Google indexes your site based on the mobile version, this is called mobile-first indexing. They favour sites that have designs that are mobile friendly, so if your website is not optimized for mobile use it could negatively affect your rankings. Google has a specific algorithm especially for mobile websites that focusseson bounce rate and click-back times. So, there is no point investing money into SEO if your website is not mobile friendly, as you will be penalized.
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More Searches Are Done on Mobile Devices Than on Desktop Computers
As of 2014, mobile device usage overtook desktop usage, with more people than ever using their mobile devices to search the internet. This means if your site is not optimized to meet the needs and expectations of these users you run the risk of losing over 50% of your websites visitors.
- Reputation
A mobile website is not a luxury, it is a necessity if your website is not mobile friendly it is becoming increasing redundant. A mobile friendly website affects more than just your web traffic, it affects your businesses reputation. If you do not have mobile friendly site, no matter how useful of unique your products or services are. You will be missing out on valuable web traffic. A company without a mobile friendly website will be viewed as ‘old fashioned’ or ‘outdated’. So, don’t throw away valuable traffic and risk running your reputation, when it is so easy to go mobile friendly.
