Websites have changed from the early days of the world wide web. When thinking of designing a web page, first and foremost, you need to think of how it looks on smaller screens like mobile devices and tablets.
There are lots of reasons why your website should be mobile-friendly; from reaching a wider audience to increasing your chances of conversion with local searches. We’re going to look at why mobile design is important and how you can make your site the talk of the town.
Why is mobile design important?
In the UK alone there were 80 million mobile subscriptions in 2019. That’s more than the entire population of the UK. Compare this to the number of people who own or regularly check a computer or laptop and you’ll find that getting into the palm of someone’s hand is much easier than reaching a computer screen. Basically, if you do not have a mobile-friendly site, then you could be losing business.
What I mean by losing business is that you are losing out of the share of the market because of one of four main factors;
- Poor SERP rankings
- Poor user experience (UX)
- Clunky mobile usage
- Unresponsive website
Optimise your website for mobile users
If your website is not mobile-friendly you will lose valuable leads. This will be reflected in SEO as search engines are less likely to rank your site if users are bouncing because of frustration, slow load speeds, or unresponsive design.
So why wouldn’t people be happy if they land on your unoptimised website on a mobile device?
One thing will be the text sizes, it will, therefore, be too small to read – having to pinch in and out to read the text which could make the user bounce – ranking you even lower and also end up losing your business.
Another reason why they wouldn’t be happy is that the navigation through the website will be both difficult and not seamless enough resulting in people exiting the website – again losing business and money.
Another major factor affecting the bounce rate is your image sizes. They may be too big to load onto the mobile device making responses slow.
Often it is not just one of these factors but a combination that can damn your website to the back pages of a search. Make sure you optimise your site to reduce the negative metrics and improve your chances of impressing users and search engines alike.
Take it from fashion brands
High street fashion retailers have made the jump from strictly brick-and-mortar to a hybrid of online and in-store. This has been accelerated by the lockdown but goes a long way to show how even with stores all over the country and a near-ubiquitous identity, they still need an online presence to capture valuable online orders and sales. Convenience is king and optimising for mobile is the first step in making your site convenient for all users.
Responsive websites = More leads
Modern expectations have also changed. Most users expect you to have a good UX. The internet has been around for several decades now and people are very unforgiven when it comes to poor web design.
Responsive websites look and function great on all devices and provide users with whatever they need in as few steps as possible. This not only makes users happier but streamlines your conversion process improving sales or bookings.
Conclusion
So to conclude, if you don’t have a website that is responsive you will not be able to gain more business as you will be ranked lower in search engines leading to users bouncing off your website due to really poor visuality, accessibility and usability.
If you need a website that is responsive or would like a little bit of a refresh too, allow Fifteen to have a look into your site from design, development and SEO too. Please do get in touch with us as we would be more than happy to discuss with you what you may need by contacting us or by calling us on 0115 932 5151.