Author: Trevor Charles
A report by the International Telecommunications Union says that there are over 4 billion mobile phone users in the world. This number is not very surprising seeing as almost every transaction can be carried out through the phone these days.
This means digital marketers can no longer afford to ignore mobile marketing when coming up with effective marketing strategies.
So, what do we mean by a mobile-friendly site? It’s merely that; making your website easy to access through a mobile device. It's not the easiest task because there are several things to consider.
You want your images to be the right size so that they don’t affect the loading time. You will also want to check that the text is appropriate for every mobile device regardless of its size. The key is in designing a site that will respond to mobile users from the get-go so you don’t have to re-do it in the future.
Here are six reasons why you should make your site mobile-friendly.
· Everyone’s Online on their Phone
With over 50% of all Google searches being conducted through mobile phones, you would be missing out greatly if you chose to forego this option. Remember that this connectivity is well distributed throughout the world, and so being visible gives your brand the chance to be seen globally.
· Your Competition is Doing it
No one wants to miss out and especially if that means losing to their fiercest competition. While you were wondering whether mobile devices would be used for anything other than making calls, your competition was making sure the world knew its name. If you fail to keep up, then you only end up losing a considerable chunk of the market.
· Be Easy to Reach
If mobile devices are the most common way for people to access the internet, then they are also the obvious choice for them to reach out to you when buying. Add social media marketing to that, and you realize that you can’t send your followers to a site that they can’t access through their phones.
You reach wider audiences and interact better with your (potential) clients when you are easily reachable. You also become more trusted when people can reach you through their devices. Psychologically, people will buy more when they are relaxed and have several options before them.
For instance, customer A was only interested in a pair of shoes, but when browsing your site, they see a shirt that matches those shoes. They are likely to buy it even though they hadn’t planned it.
· Great Loading Speeds
A mobile-friendly site loads faster than one that is not optimized for mobile devices. Most people have no patience to wait longer than 10 seconds for a site to load. They simply move on to other sites that offer similar services.
Imagine waiting a minute for your favorite online sportsbook to load because the text and images are too large, and then waiting another minute to see a match’s odds.
You’ll move on to the next, which is how slow corporate sites lose their potential clients.
Websites that load faster have better rankings than their unresponsive counterparts.
· You’ll be in Google’s Good Books
Because most of the searches done daily are done through mobile devices, Google punishes those sites that are not mobile-friendly by pushing their ranking down.
You will then have to spend more on SEO and making your site visible, yet you can avoid this extra cost by enhancing user-experience.
· The Future is in Responsive Websites
An unresponsive website will have no place in the future since a lot of marketing is done on social media these days.
If a user cannot effortlessly move to the website when they click on it from your social media account, then you are unlikely to be competitive in the future.
Too Much Trouble?
Is mobile-friendliness worth the trouble? Certainly, because Google prioritizes this practice. Sites that give mobile users an easy time rank better, and so you will want to work on yours if you are to be able to take full advantage of the growing smartphone usage.
Having mobile users in mind when designing your website ensures a seamless transition from desktop to mobile without worrying too much about the size of text or images.