Whatever is the purpose of your website, not having it optimized for mobile users would be very unwise.

 

Per the Marry Meeker’s highly awaited, speedy slide-forwarding, annual internet trend report deck in 2019, digital media users spent 6.3 hours daily on the internet – 7% higher than the previous year.  Most of that growth was attributed to mobile device users, as the number of computer users decreased. The number of mobile users that consume digital media had also almost doubled in the span of 2 years.

 

The data trend is clear –  mobile devices will most probably be the primary conduit for most people who are going to access the internet.

 

Don’t argue with someone who’s been dubbed “the Queen of the Internet”.

 

Now that we’ve served you some data from a much-beloved authority figure, let’s get into why making your website mobile-friendly is important!

 

P.S. Mary, we’re waiting for your regularly scheduled programming in 2022 with bated breath after being denied 2 years’ worth of full Internet Trends Report (there was a plague, we understand). Thanks.

 

User Experience

 

Customers are kings, and business owners exist to please them.

 

A monarch expects their servants to make life easier for him – including making his majesty’s mobile browsing experience as seamless as it does on a computer.

 

Internet users are your prospective customers. Treat them like the monarchs that they are. 

 

Availability for Everyone

 

With a staggering 4.3 billion unique users accessing the internet through their mobile devices, optimizing your website with them in mind is a justifiable move. That number represents more than half of the earth’s population and over 90% of all internet users. 

 

Impressive isn’t it?

 

Well, possible reasons for the figure include the lower average cost of mobile electronics relative to computers, small sizes, and portability. People who own computers also own mobile devices – hence the figure.

 

An added accessibility benefit to a mobile-friendly site is the ease of your customers getting in touch with your business. Mobile-friendly sites can turn the business’ address, contact number, email, and social media handles into clickable buttons that would land them on the appropriate actions.

 

You can read the complete study here. 

 

Accessibility

 

Accessibility is not just a cool trend for corporates to jump into just because – it’s a real necessity.

 

With around 40 million Americans living with some form of disabilities – and about a quarter of them (26% or 10 million) access the internet through electronic mobile devices – it’s incumbent upon webmasters and companies to make their websites available for use to this portion of the population. The figure varies globally from country to country, but the issues are similar, therefore the need for accessibility is therefore a global need.

 

People live with all kinds of disabilities – there are those with hard of hearing, visually impaired or legally blind, or living with some form of challenges that come with being neurodivergent just to name a few. 

 

Technology has come a long way to provide convenience for humanity, and with that, comes advancement in accessibility features. 

 

People with visual impairment typically employ the help of screen readers (software that reads the texts on the webpage and interfaces out loud) and voice command software. For both mobile IOS and Android users, screen reader software is available in the form of VoiceOver and TalkBack respectively, and SIRI and Alexa for the voice command.

 

People with deafness or hard of hearing would often utilize the help of visual cues such as signposts and closed captions for video content. Some accessibility features that could also be considered for those who are hard of hearing may include a volume amplification toggle built-in on the website.

 

Optimizing your website for disabled mobile users will benefit your business tremendously – and if it’s not for your revenue or profit, do it to be kind. The world is often designed without keeping disability and neurodiversity in mind, so giving them equity in the pleasure of seamless browsing is just noble. Because everybody deserves the same kind of access, regardless of how their brain or senses are wired.

 

A great example of a fully optimized website for both desktop and mobile users is the Jeffree Star Cosmetics website. There you can find accessibility features that would cater to a myriad of disabilities and impairments with the option to toggle on and off. You could check Jeffree’s website here.

 

Jeffree Star Cosmetics employ an automated accessibility widget from accessiBe.com. Please visit their website to learn more – and possibly use the feature if you find it to your liking.

 

Uniform “Brand” Experience

 

As discussed in this article, a uniform brand experience is essential.

 

A mobile-optimized version of your website does just that – it adds to the experience of your brand’s “universe”.

 

Having a good computer-optimized website is good and a consistently updated social media handle is wonderful, but a lousy mobile version of your website would ruin your users’ experience.

 

There are plenty of tools online (free ones!) that would help you check whether your website is mobile-optimized – or, you could whip out some of your very own mobile devices and browse your website and see if it provides a seamless experience!

 

 

Revenue. Money. The Bottom Line

 

How does having a mobile-friendly website affect your bottom line positively?

 

By not getting your customers turned off when browsing your website through their phones.

 

Having to constantly zoom in and out when they’re trying to decipher the tiny texts, misclicked links because the link buttons are either too small or are located too close together, and a slew of other unoptimized-for-mobile website issues will create a very unhappy browsing experience.

 

Seriously. Don’t expect your customers’ visits to be converted into sales if their browsing experience inconveniences them such a lot. They will bounce, find other similar businesses on the search engine a.k.a your competitors, and you won’t get your customers’ dollars.

 

A lot of the convenience of mobile browsing lies in the UI/UX aspects of your mobile version of the website. You can read what we’ve discussed here on the difference between the two, and which aspects to pay attention to.

 

So, take care of your bottom line. Optimize your website for mobile users and be the business your customers will gladly be patrons of.

 

Reputation & Relevance

 

Whether you want to please your current customer base or are trying to get a slice of the untapped demographic pie, the most important thing to have as a business is a good reputation and relevance. 

 

Anyone who’s about to patronise your business needs to know that, through your reputation, you’re going to solve their problems well every time they come to you. Your business also needs to be trustworthy and consistent in delivering quality products and services. 

 

Now how do you distinguish your business from an ocean of businesses with their own customer bases and are constantly trying to get (and poach) more customers from their competitors?

 

By having a mobile-friendly website, of course!

 

Having a mobile compatible website is one of the easiest and most effective ways to stand out to set yourself apart from the competitors. It also allows you to project an image of trustworthiness, because it tells customers that you’re not above modernizing your ecosystem, adaptive, and have kept them in mind in your decision making. In some amazing ways, having a mobile-friendly website humanizes your business.

 

A good reputation basically tells your customers that your business is a safe and reliable place for them to seek solutions to their problems – and that is a space where your customers would always return to.

 

Speedy, Speedy, Speedy!

 

How important is website speed for businesses?

 

Very important. In fact, Amazon had conducted simulations to gauge the effect that speed would have on their sales figure. The e-commerce giant then concluded that it would lose around $ 1.6 billion annually if its website slowed down even just by one second.

 

One second = $ 1.6 billion of potential loss.

 

Let that sink very slowly in. Oh, did we tell you that the study was conducted more than a decade ago? There are more consumers who seek the solutions to their problems through online search engines nowadays, and they are much less tolerant to slow loading web pages compared to the early 2010s.

 

Now, one of the advantages of mobile-optimized websites is that they are generally faster than desktop websites. Generally.

 

Having your website accessible through mobile devices does not always translate to speediness, because mobile accessible and mobile-friendly are two different things.

An optimized website for mobile devices takes into account not only the user interface but also speed – often through the size reduction of the website’s elements. This is all done in service of not having your customers flee your slow website.

 

Have your customers load for more than 3 seconds, and they will bounce – and you’ll lose conversion. 

 

Conversion and bounce rates for business websites are directly tied to your revenue.

The conversion rate represents the number of a website’s visitors who have satisfied a desirable action(s). For example, if your website received 100 visitors and 5 of them buy the products listed on the site, you have a 5% conversion rate. Similarly, the bounce rate figure tells you how many of your visitors “bounce” or leave the page without continuing to visit another page(s) of the same site (i.e., no desirable action taken).

 

As a business, the desirable action that you would want your customers to complete is to purchase the goods and/or services that you offer.

 

Statistics have demonstrated that the longer it takes for your webpage to render, the lower your conversion rate and vice versa. So, if you want as many of your visitors to purchase your product offering, you must ensure that your website is speedy, speedy, speedy.

 

And having your website optimized for mobile devices (thus fast) – not just accessible through mobile devices –  is, therefore, imperative.

 

 

Mobile-Friendly = SEO Friendly

 

In short: because Google compels you to.

 

And they’re not being secretive about it – a rare occurrence for Google. They’re usually quite hush-hush about major factors that impact their algorithms.

 

While SEO practitioners and experts would usually question the reasoning behind Google’s algorithm factors, the fact that mobile compatibility is a ranking factor is truly a no brainer. 

 

Google’s philosophy behind doing things is always to serve a greater goal that is to provide a great user experience, and since many of today’s internet users do so through mobile devices, factoring mobile-friendliness as a part of its ranking consideration is on-brand.

 

Speed is a major factor that affects user experience when browsing through mobile devices. Google has, again, very kindly provided a free tool to test your mobile speediness. The tool also works to test desktop speed and mobile friendliness, so, yay Google!

 

In conclusion, make your website accessible to mobile users and you’ll have a better chance of appearing at the top of Google’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page). And what does ranking high on the SERP get you? Visits with a chance of a conversion. 

 

To get a better understanding of what is SEO and how to do it well, please visit our articles here and here. 

 

There are so many reasons why having a mobile-friendly website will benefit your endeavor. Now, we understand that there seem to be many factors to consider when you’re trying to optimize your website for the growing number of mobile users.

 

That’s why we at Timedoor are here to help you with the headache.

 

Here at Timedoor, we provide services such as web development and design that are optimized for mobile devices (phones and tablets) that are attractive and appropriate for any electronic platforms that you own.  The website that we develop is also very responsive, quick to load, and of very high quality.

 

Please visit us for more information (click the link here). We can’t wait to work with you and discuss the best way to tailor a website that best suits your needs.