Why You Need to Have a Mobile-Friendly Website

Mobile devices have changed the way people Search.​ In 2019, Mobile devices accounted for 65% of Google searches while the use of personal computers continues to decline. Having a mobile-friendly site is an absolute necessity for both your SEO and SEM efforts.

Why is having a mobile-friendly website so important?

• SEO ranking — In 2015, Google announced that they will be making mobile-friendliness and mobile site speed ranking signals for SEO. Five years later and they are two of the most significant factors in how your website ranks. If your website doesn’t perform well in these areas, you could be penalized.
• Your customers are using a mobile device — As mentioned above, 65% of Google searches are via mobile devices.
• Your competitors are mobile-friendly — According to Google, 70% of websites are now offering a mobile experience.
• Build trust with your customers — 57% of online users have said they won’t recommend a business with a poor mobile experience.
• Keep your customer’s attention — Attention spans are shorter than ever and if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 57% of mobile visitors will abandon your website. And when these mobile visitors leave, 41% of customers go directly to a competitor’s site.
• Improve conversion rates — A mobile-friendly website means a better browsing experience which ultimately leads to more conversions.
• Be seen locally -— 97% of searches for services or products in a customer’s local area are on a mobile device. 49% of those searches are done without a specific business in mind. This is a high intent search as the majority of customers act on the search results within an hour.

What makes up a mobile-friendly website?

• Fast loading time
  • Load time of 3 seconds or less.
  • Compress your images and CSS. Compressing your image file sizes will improve loading time without hurting the quality of what people see on your website.
  • Don’t use Flash. This will slow down your loading speed and there are many browsers where it doesn’t work.
• A responsive website
  • Automatically resizes the website to fit the device of the user.
• Information is easy to find
  • Think about the information that people on mobile devices are most likely to be looking for when visiting your website. Make that information easily accessible.
  • Contact information would be a key example of information you would want to make easily accessible. Consider using a click-to-call button.
• Large font sizes
  • It’s recommended to use a font of at least 14px.
• Buttons are large enough to click on mobile devices
  • Test this out yourself on a variety of devices, if you had trouble, it’s time for an update. This can save your customers from a frustrating experience.
• The option to switch to desktop view
  • Some of your customers may actually prefer the desktop option. Give them the option to view your website in a way that enhances their experience.

How to ensure your website is operating as mobile-friendly?

• Browse your website and ask employees to do the same. Assess your experience as if you were one of your customers and gather feedback from employees. Test this out on tablets and mobile devices. Discuss what could be done to improve the mobile experience.
• Check your site speed in Google Analytics
  • Page load time for a sample of page views. Can view how your pages loaded through different perspectives such as different browsers or countries. Available in the ​Page Timings​ report.
  • Load time of any hit, event, or user interaction that you want to track (how quickly images load, response time to button clicks). Available in the ​User Timings​ report.
  • Review the speed suggestions report. Tips tailored to your website to make your pages load faster. Behavior > Site Speed > Speed Suggestions.
• Google offers tools that will tell you within seconds if your website is mobile-friendly and what you can do to improve.
  • Pagespeed Insights
  • Mobile-Friendly Test