5 Benefits of a Mobile Friendly Website
Back in 2008 Mary Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers made what seemed to be a very bold prediction:
”Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access in 2014”.
According to a recent report from comScore dubbed the Digital Future, we are way past that point. In fact, the same analysis shows that some countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, and India, for instance, have more than up to four time higher audience for smartphones than for desktop devices.
In other words — usage of mobile devices is growing and, as such, the web design and development industry needs to respond. Behavioral patterns and consumer trends are subjected to constant change as brand new technology continues to emerge, catering to the various needs of the user.
Mobile friendliness has already become more of a requirement rather than an advantage when it comes to web design. This is especially true if the website is to progress and thrive into a rampantly dynamic and competitive environment.
This has become even more paramount after Google took a further step to use mobile friendliness as a definitive ranking signal.
Mobile friendly web design reveals an array of benefits, some of which are more critical that regular business owners might suggest.
We’ve taken the liberty of listing a few of the most important advantages brought by a website which is perfectly optimized and mobile friendly.
Benefits of Mobile Friendliness
1. Larger Audience
As we mentioned above, the audience for mobile devices is growing through the years. This provides a much larger field for companies to thrive within.
Roughly around two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone. Furthermore, 87 percent of millennials use their phones excessively throughout the day and the night.
As a website owner, you want to ensure that your online presence is attractive as well as functional for the overly increasing number of mobile users.
2. More Traffic
More than half of all the e-commerce traffic comes from mobile devices. While this statement is enough on its own, it’s important to outline that most of the users would get a first glimpse at your products through their mobile devices.
Regardless of whether you are selling a product or a service, you should be aware of the importance of first impressions. Making your website mobile friendly will present whatever it is that you have to offer in the best possible light.
3. Users Don’t Like to Wait
Websites which are not mobile friendly fail to load as quickly as those which are. One research showed that about 40 percent of mobile users tend to abandon a website if it fails to load in less than three seconds.
Speed is key. Optimizing your website perfectly will improve its speed and, with it — the entire user experience. Needless to say, this will translate to greater engagement, conversions, increased revenues, and all those goodies.
4. Google Favors Mobile Friendliness
As we mentioned at the beginning, Google favors mobile friendliness and it will account for it as a key ranking signal.
In other words, if your website is mobile friendly, it will rank higher in Google’s search engine compared to those which don’t.
According to the company itself, this move enables users to get “relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”
Founder of Rioks, a marketing consultancy that is focused on inbound marketing and SEO services, says:
This is the main reason for which all SEO companies are going to emphasize on the importance of mobile friendliness and implement it as one of the first core services of their action plan.
5. Increased Average Time Spent on Site
The key difference between desktop devices and mobile ones is that the latter can be used on the go. Logically, people are able to spend more time on your venue through their smartphone rather than through their PC.
As with everything which is online, it is all about time. As a website owner, you have a limited amount of time to capture the attention of the visitor.
If a user is capable of navigating through your website easier, you’d increase the chance of converting him into a customer.
If you want to take your website to an even higher level, you might also want to consider the creation of a mobile application as means of acquiring new customers.
Wrapping it up
It’s more than obvious that being mobile friendly is a paramount requirement for the success of your website. This can transition to higher customer acquisition, enhanced online presence, prominent conversion rates, and other particularly beneficial factors for your business.
The world is going mobile and that’s a fact.
The question is: will you embrace the change or will you stay behind?
