Anthony Occhiuto

Once seen as a luxury item, smartphones are now a staple of everyday life around the world. The incorporation of smartphones into most people’s daily routines has caused some significant changes to the way websites are built, managed, and maintained. It is imperative that websites be optimised for mobile, meaning it has been designed and formatted to read and navigate easily on the screens of various mobile devices. You have probably come across pages whilst browsing on your mobile phone that are not mobile-friendly, and know of the frustration (as well as high bounce rate!) this can cause. Is your website mobile friendly? It should be – we’ve compiled a list of reasons on why you should make the change.

The Importance of Having a Mobile Friendly Website

SEO

Google recently announced that they will prioritise companies that have mobile-friendly websites when people use the search engine on their smartphones or tablet computers. This change came into effect as of Wednesday 22nd April 2015, and has already seen the rankings of numerous businesses with desktop only websites be negatively affected (66% of Australian websites are not mobile-friendly). If you want your site to rank highly in Google, it is now imperative that it is optimised for mobile. Having a mobile-friendly website is not the only factor to consider when aiming for engine ranking success, however it will play a vital role in the battle for the highly coveted number 1 place on Google.

Traffic

As of mid 2014, mobile usage overtook desktop usage for the first time in the history of the internet. With more people than ever using their mobile devices to access the internet, you run the risk of losing over 50% of your visitors if your website is not optimised for mobile. If your site is not mobile friendly, you’re probably already losing traffic. This is easily rectifiable though, by simply contacting and hiring a reputable web developer to assist you with making the move to mobile.

Engagement

Optimising your website for mobile has been proven to boost engagement by almost twice the average traffic per user. 90% of people report moving between devices when completing a task, and offering an engaging mobile experience increases the likelihood of customers re-visiting your website on a desktop. If your mobile site is easy to read and navigate, your bounce rate should reduce, and your customer is much more likely to spend time (and hopefully money) on your site, products, or services.

Sales

Recent research has indicated that consumers are 51% more likely to do business with an online retailer if it has a mobile-optimised site. Although desktop sites still account for the majority of online sales, mobile is catching up. The habits of those who shop using desktop and those who shop using mobile differ – desktop buyers tend to make more informed and carefully researched buying decisions, whilst mobile buyers are generally more impulsive (a recent study found that 80 percent of shoppers admit that mobile purchases are impulse-driven).

SEO, traffic, engagement, and sales – 4 great reasons as to why your website should be optimised for mobile as soon as possible. Google offers a range of resources for webmasters to test their mobile sites and tools to make their pages mobile-friendly, we can assist you with making the transition to mobile. In the near future, the majority of the population will be browsing the internet using mobile devices, meaning that any business with an online presence needs to ensure that their website is properly optimised for mobile.