People go online and visit websites to learn more about businesses,
brands, products and services and to make quick and easy online
purchases.
If you don’t have a website, you are in a real danger of going out of
business. The only exception to the rule is if: 1. you don’t depend on
your website to stay in business, or 2. you have no competitors.
If any of those reasons apply to you, then you are okay and can carry as normal. . However, if your business does need an online presence and you do have competitors, getting a responsive website should be your number one
marketing goal.
Why your business needs a responsive website:
If the term ‘responsive web design’ is new to you, don’t feel bad. You are
by no means alone.
Responsive web design is simply a website that adjusts gracefully to fit
on desktop, tablet, and smartphone. So no matter what device a visitor is
using to view your website, a responsive website will look good no
matter whether you are looking at it on a phone, tablet or desktop.
However you may be questioning whether or not you really do need a
mobile responsive website.
No doubt you will have seen for yourself how many people are
using tablets and smartphones to go online. You probably even
do it yourself. Walking around, we all seemed to be plugged in
to our mobile device these days.
So why are there still so many businesses that have not yet
adapted and changed their site to a mobile responsive site?
Whatever the reason it is not too late for your business.
Here are the Top 12 Reasons why your business website should
convert to Responsive Web Design.
1. It is recommended by Google
Since Google is the primary search engine to impress with your
website, it would be foolish to ignore any Google
recommendation.
Google not only recommends Responsive Web Design (RWD)
as the best way to target mobile and tablet users but it also
favors mobile-optirnized sites when presenting results for
searches made on a mobile device. This is especially true when
mobile users search for local services.
On the 6th June 2012 Google published this quote:
“Sites that use responsive web design, i.e. sites that serve all
devices on the same set of URLs, with each URL serving the
same HTML to all devices and using just CSS to change how
the page is rendered on the device. This is Googles
recommended configuration.”
With 67 percent search market share, when Google speaks,
search marketing professionals and business owners listen.
Google now states that responsive web design is the industry
best practice.
When you think about it, it’s also easier and less confusing for
users to share, interact with, and link to than content on a
stripped down mobile site.
For instance, a mobile user who shares content from a mobile
site with a friend on the Facebook app who then accesses that
content using a desktop, which results in that user viewing a
stripped down mobile site on their desktop. This creates a less than positive user-experience, and because of the large emphasis
Google is now placing on user-experience as a ranking factor,
this is essential to take into account with regards to SEO.
2. One Website, Multiple Devices
Providing a great user-experience across multiple devices and
screen sizes is the most appealing and most critical aspect of
responsive web design for today’s mobile world.
For example, if you search for a birthday gift on your
smartphone during a break at work then continue researching
the product on the same site on your desktop when you get
home, because the site is responsive you won’t be frustrated
with the extra steps to locate the desktop version of the site, and
find the product all over again. It makes life so much simpler
and your potential customers will love you for it.
3. It is Easier to Manage
Having a separate desktop AND mobile site requires having
separate Google AdWords campaigns, SEO campaigns and
separate Google Analytics reports which becomes very
confusing. Managing one site is far easier than managing two
sites.
4. Positive User Experience Is Key
When mobile users land on a website that is not mobile
responsive, those users tend to leave that website and a sales
opportunity is missed.
In fact if a user lands on your mobile website and is frustrated or
doesn’t see what they are looking for, according to Google’s
Think Insights on Mobile, there’s a 61 % chance they will leave
and go to a different website. Data shows a positive experience
with your responsive website a user is 67% more likely to buy a
product or use a service.
So it makes perfect sense to upgrade your site into a mobile
responsive one.
5. Blogging and Social Activities Bring Mobile Visitors
If you have been following our advice and incorporating
business blogging and social media in your online marketing
strategy, you will have most likely experienced increased
mobile traffic. A recent study by ComScore cites that 55% of
social media consumption happens on a mobile device with
more and more people accessing social media sites like
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram on their phones.
6. Responsive Design is Preferred for SEO
Typically, Mobile responsive Websites perform better and are
easier to maintain. One thing not mentioned above is that a
challenge and disadvantage of having a separate mobile site is
that you will need to build the authority and reputation of this
site from scratch, and who wants to go to that extra trouble? It is
better just to upgrade to a mobile responsive site and keep the
existing traffic and authority that you already have.
7. Small Businesses Need Mobile Friendly Responsive Sites
Because so many people are now using their smartphones to
access the Internet, this has led to a rapid decline in desktop
Internet browsing.
Having a mobile friendly business website will attract many
more customers for you. It has been confirmed that over 90% of
mobile users search for a local business enterprise on their mobile device. What is even more significant is that these mobile searchers invariably contact the business they have researched within 24 hours. Hence, if your business website is mobile-friendly, you will attract more customers and increase your profits.
8. A Speedy Responsive Website is Vital
The content per page on a mobile or tablet device should load in
under 1 – 2 seconds according to the Google Page Speed
Developers standards. Your visitors are busy people and like
speed. If the site takes too long to load, they won’t hang around.
They will click off the site and visit your competitor instead.
9. No More Lost Revenue Because Of Lack of engagement
If you don’t have any meaningful engagement with mobile users, it will be very expensive for your business. Figures show that small to medium sized businesses that lack mobile friendly sites lose billions in revenue.
As mentioned earlier, a mobile responsive website is
indispensable for your social media campaigns. Since many of
your potential customers use a smartphone or tablet to locate
your business, Google spiders show a higher affinity for mobile-
ready websites.
By being active on social media and providing links to your mobile website guarantees more activity arriving your way in the form of visitors and buyers. If your links get reposted, your website is assured of a higher ranking in the search engines.
10. Mobile-Friendly Responsive Design Brings Fresh Sales
Having a mobile web presence will result in brand new sales
opportunities for your business. Because your potential customers use mobile devices on an ongoing basis every day and it is part of their web browsing routine, a mobile-ready site results in sales opportunities that you would miss out on an conventional business website.
11. eCommerce is now mCommerce
The dramatic growth of mCommerce in the last 5 years has prompted small businesses to revamp their business websites. If you haven’t done so, you can afford to delay in remodelling your business website to capitalize on this rise in mCommerce.
You will have the power to convert visitors arriving via mobile
devices into loyal customers. An increasing number of people are opting for online purchases because it not only saves money but also saves energy and time that making the trip to the retail store takes. Mobile shopping has definitely become more mainstream. You can keep with this trend by optimizing your offline business to cater for mobile users. Just ensure that the user-experience and purchasing process on your business website is glitch-free. Convert mobile users into loyal customers.
12. Setting Up A Mobile Responsive site Is Inexpensive and Simple
Setting up a mobile website for your business need not be expensive. As with all sophisticated technology, mobile web design and upkeep used to be extremely expensive when it was first introduced. Now, however, you can have a fresh, dynamic responsive web design without making too much of a
dent in your marketing budget.
In a lot of cases you don’t even need to start creating it from scratch. Your website developer would be able to explain what options are available to you.
The Future is Mobile …..
As you can see, having a mobile-friendly responsive website is an indispensable tool for your online marketing campaigns.
Because smartphone use is expected to exceed actual desktop use in the next 12 months, your business will miss out on an excellent opportunity for additional sales if you don’t act now.