Long gone are the days where users should have to pinch and zoom through your website on a smaller screen than a desktop computer. If your website is still non-responsive then you’re not only falling behind, but you could also be losing potential customers and helping out the competition!
Don’t be in denial — your customers ARE on mobile.
I’ve heard website owners say, “Well my customers don’t really need my site to be accessible on a phone” or “Most of my users are not going to go to my site on-the-go.” The growing trend of mobile marketing has reached a point where we can no longer ignore its necessity. If you still think that most of your customers are not going to visit your site on a mobile or tablet device, think again. The numbers continue to go up. Let’s look at the statistics:
- 80% of internet users own a smartphone (Global Web Index) and this number is just going to keep increasing. (Good news for companies with a mobile strategy, right?)
- 80% of users search the internet using a mobile device, 47% a tablet, 37% a game console and other devices such as smart tv’s, watches, wristbands and more are emerging (Global Web Index) If your website is fully responsive to adapt to any browser size, then you will already have most devices covered.
- 74% of users use search to shop and 48% of mobile search is started on a search engine rather than a branded website or mobile app (Google) Google gives bonus points to businesses with mobile-friendly websites. So if yours is not, it may hurt your rankings.
- 61% of users are less likely to return to a site which isn’t mobile friendly and 40% will turn to a competitor’s site instead (McKinsey & Company) If your site isn’t mobile friendly, you could actually be helping out your competition!
Responsive content leads to conversions
A truly great responsive layout focuses on content, not device resolutions. Your content should format nicely within ANY tablet, desktop or mobile resolution for the best user experience regardless of “standard” browser sizes or popular devices. By making your site responsive, you are making content hierarchy decisions for your users — rather than asking them to decide which information is most important. After all, the goal is to guide users through your site from one page to the next for better conversions. Surveying your content into different hierarchy levels is the base of a good responsive design strategy.
Don’t neglect mobile functionality
Besides presenting your content clearly, your design should FUNCTION on mobile devices. Phone numbers should be clickable so users can make calls directly from your site, form fields should tell the device which keyboard options should display when filling them out — features like this contribute to good usability and keep potential customers from giving up before finishing the process.
Google makes it harder for non-responsive websites to rank
Last year, we told you about the new google algorithm affecting mobile search rankings. This May, in an effort to make the web even more mobile friendly google has released a new update which will give mobile-friendly sites even more priority over non-responsive websites. A number of factors will affect your search ratings a mobile-friendly website being one of them.
It’s not too late to think about a responsive solution
At BMD&M we no longer design non-responsive websites — it would just be irresponsible of us, but there are many sites out there which haven’t yet made the switch. True the best responsive websites are designed with a mobile strategy up front, however, many sites can be transformed into a responsive one without having to completely rebuild it.
If you’re still not convinced that your site should be responsive or aren’t sure if it is, take the google mobile friendly test for a free assessment.