Why your website must be mobile friendly

MASSMEDIUMS02 May 2016

Your customers are increasingly on the go. Your website must be easy to access from all mobile devices, or you risk loosing out on business. Here are 5 great reasons why your company would benefit from a responsive designed website.

1. Almost all of your clients search from mobile devices.
   Whether on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, chances are many of your clients have tried to access your website from a mobile device. Studies show that there are 90 million smartphone users on the North America continent alone. To find these statistics, you can check your google analytics page to investigate exactly how many mobile users you're currently seeing traffic from. From there, you can expect that number to increase as the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablet devices continue to trend upwards.
2. No flash support on iOS, Blackberry and Windows devices.
   Flash is vastly used on websites for animation, effects, and videos. Coincidentally, mobile devices have limited support for this technology. Apple for example, has denied the access of Flash on it's iOS devices and so have Blackberry and Windows phones. In fact, Adobe, the creators of Flash, has decided to stop development of mobile Flash. If you use Flash for anything important on your website, mobile users will not be able to access that particular information. By creating a mobile-optimized website without Flash, you'll be opening a door to a new marketplace.
3. Mobile users have different needs than desktop users.
   Whether searching for your address to get directions to a physical location, pulling up your phone number to make an inquiry, or making an advance purchase or reservation, your website must be easy to navigate and load quickly across all mobile networks. Beyond these needs, mobile users have an increased expectation that your website can make it effortless to find critical information and take advantage of mobile-ready shortcuts. If your website is not responsive, you risk mobile users navigating away in lieu of a competitor’s more mobile-friendly website.
4. Bounce rates for mobile users is typically higher.
   It is not surprising that bounce rates for mobile users are generally higher than other devices. This is due to the idea that mobile users expect a comparable experience to viewing websites on their desktop that would on their mobile device. They expect sites to load quickly and give them the information they’re looking for in a timely manner. If your website isn’t up to par with a mobile-friendly experience – they will often refer to a competitor’s website that is responsive instead.
5. Extend your offline marketing campaigns.
   Mobile products can offer great way to extend your offline marketing campaigns, and can bridge the gap between online and offline selling. Of the ninty million (plus) cellphone users throughout North America, 71% search for a product after immediately after seeing the ad for it. By creating and having a responsive webpage, you no longer have to hope that the person who saw your ad on a bus stop bench or in the paper needs remembers it until they gain access to a computer. Nowadays information retrieval is and should be instant, so be sure that your web presence is keeping up with today's technological advancements.

Getting a mobile-friendly website doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. We specialize in creating responsive websites that are optimized for local business search results. Let us help.