There are multiple reasons why you should design a mobile-friendly website, especially if you run a local brick and mortar small business. Mobile internet use continues to grow in popularity, so it only makes sense to prepare for a more mobile future. Here are some other reasons for crafting a mobile-friendly website.
Related Blog: How Google's Mobilegeddon Responsive Website Update Affects You
Search For Mobile
In April 2015 Google updated its algorithm for mobile search to weed out sites that were not mobile-friendly. This change, however, did not affect rankings of desktop sites in Google's broader search engine. Essentially the more local or interactive your site is, the more important it is to target mobile users, who are most ready to buy.
One way to find out if your site is mobile-friendly from a search engine perspective is to check Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. It will either confirm the URL you enter is mobile-friendly or give you a list of reasons why it isn't mobile-friendly, which might include the following:
- Text is too small to read
- Links are too close together
- Mobile viewport is not set
- Consequences of Bad Mobile Experiences
Research from a recent Google survey shows that mobile users don't like dealing with companies associated with bad mobile experiences. Over 65 percent of mobile users say they are more likely to make a purchase from a mobile-friendly website, while over half of mobile users say they are less likely to deal with sites that don't offer a mobile-friendly experience.
Keep in mind that mobile users will know immediately if your site functions well on small screens. If your site is obviously not designed to be cross-platform, then many users will leave the site.
Solutions To Be Mobile-Friendly
If you use a popular cloud-based content management system to craft your website, then chances are it already has built-in tools to make sure you have a mobile-friendly website. If your site is built from the ground up with code, the two main solutions are either responsive website design or creating separate sites for desktop and mobile that are linked together.
Responsive web design is the most popular choice because it eliminates the confusion of different URLs and cuts down on the time it takes to build and manage two sites. The keys to responsive web design are simplicity, easy access to content and fluid layouts that appear the same on all platforms.
Click here to read more about responsive web design!
