The paradox of “mobile responsive”
If you don’t follow SEO updates, in 2015, Google changed its algorithms to favor mobile-friendly websites. Basically, websites that had larger font sizes, readable content, and easy-to-use buttons, would rank higher. A later update favored sites that didn’t use mobile pop-ups.
All of these updates — in addition to the massive increase in smartphone use — spurred marketers to redesign their websites to be mobile responsive. That meant that content should be easy to read, buttons should be easy to tap, and images should render nicely.
Despite these changes to make websites mobile responsive, they haven’t actually gotten consumer responses on mobile. Conversion rates on mobile are (at a minimum) 3x lower than desktop conversion rates. Yet mobile traffic is skyrocketing relative to desktop.
Mobile traffic grew 63% in 2016 and most of us probably know that our mobile traffic far outpaces our desktop.
So, why then, are we content with mobile responsive design? It clearly doesn’t get results. Sure, it might push our websites up ever so slightly in search results, but it’s not getting the conversions (responses, really) that we want. You can solve the device problem with responsive design, but you won’t solve the attention problem.
Put yourself in the mindset of someone using their phone. You’re waiting for your order to come up at Five Guys. Or maybe you’re watching a movie and checking your phone every now and then. Next, go to your website on your phone. How long to do you have to scroll to get to a CTA? To get to the bottom of the page? Is your content just neatly stacked on top of each other? Do you have paragraphs of tiny text between images? Are all of your products just listed, with a tiny side menu that people have to pinch-and-zoom to see?
Mobile responsiveness indicates that we’re thinking about mobile, but the fact that we don’t get an overwhelming response from our customers on our mobile sites should tell us all we need to know.
It’s easy to say what doesn’t work well, but it’s much harder to say what does work well. We’ll break down how to guarantee conversions and responses in the moment as we publish more articles, so follow us so you don’t miss out!
