Now that we are in a digital era, there is no stopping. You constantly have to keep up with the current trends and advancements. One of these advancements are mobile responsive websites, responsive to and made for all devices. Perhaps you do not understand why certain things are important and why you have to keep on investing in your online presence. If this is the case, keep on reading to find out why.
A growing number of mobile users
According to the Digital in 2017 Global overview, a half of the world’s society accesses the Internet using their mobile phones. Not only that this is a large portion of the market, but it is also a growing one. The number has increased by 30% since last year. This is a very good reason to keep up with the new standards and use a responsive design.
Be available on-the-go
If you are a business owner it is highly important for people to be able to use you on-the-go. For example, a lot of people look up places to eat while they are in a car and they need the information then and there. Not having a responsive web page at this point equals to not having one at all. This is particularly important for small business, but as they are usually happy with the volume they get from people locally, they often do not bother.
Online Shopping
One of the advantages of the Internet is that consumers have greater and more convenient access to a wide range of products and services. According to bigapplemedia, about 80% of mobile phone users, use their devices to shop online. This has brought new prospects to e-commerce and has set it upon you to make your web page mobile responsive so people can purchase your products by using their phones.
Cost-effectiveness
If you decide to build a mobile-friendly website, you will have to have another one for desktop users. Having a responsive design on your website means that your content will adjust to any screen and consequently you will need only one web page. While responsive websites can be a bit more expensive, they pay back both through money and time invested in maintenance. It is cheaper and less time-consuming to do upkeep for one page than it is for two.
Duplicate Content
Speaking of two web pages, not only that you would have to maintain two separate sites, but you would also have to create different content. If you do not, Google will recognize that there are two websites with the same content and, as a result, they will penalize you. You have to make sure to indicate which of the two pages is more important so that one gets indexed. People tend to fail to do so and sometimes managing it can be difficult.
The importance of user experience
A non-responsive website can become distorted when viewed via a mobile phone. In addition, it will probably take a lot of time for your website to load. If mobile phone users have to wait and scroll through your page from side to side and top to bottom in order to find the info they need, it will not be long before they become annoyed, give up and navigate away from your page. This could potentially increase your bounce rate which means that users navigate away from your page before they decide to explore it further. The long waiting time, bounce rates and the little time they spend on your page overall are all measured by Google and taken into account when they calculate your rating. Personal Digital say they have even had a couple of people coming to complain about this, thinking that their phones were having an issue with connecting to Wi-Fi.
SEO advantages
Having a mobile responsive website is recognized by Google as an advantage which improves your ratings. This, combined with other things mentioned such as the time required to load, bounce rates, click-through rates and the overall time spent on your page make you preferred by Google. As most of us know by now, it is incredibly important to gain Google’s favor and be one of the top finds in Google searches.
If you think that all of this is a hassle and that you cannot deal with it, hire someone who will be able to do it for you. The money invested now will pay off down the track.