When someone refers to a mobile friendly website, they are not talking about whether or not a website is visible on a mobile phone. Used in conjunction with any given website, the term mobile friendly refers to a good user experience on a small screen. New trends are dictating that Web businesses should understand that their websites now have to be mobile friendly to remain relevant in today’s tech savvy market.
Website visitors are increasingly using a variety of devices to connect to the Internet. Smartphones, netbooks and tablets have been trending as popular device choices to surf the net. Most experts see this trend as something that is here to stay. However, many websites still require users to zoom in and out in order to successfully navigate them while using a mobile device. This can create an unsatisfactory user experience, which is very harmful to Web traffic.
Why you should make your website mobile friendly
Studies have shown that 18 percent of people who browse through websites that are not mobile friendly experienced both extended loading periods and difficulty with page navigation. This has resulted in users choosing to abandon these sites altogether. This is not good news for e-commerce sites that haven’t taken the action to make their websites mobile friendly. To garner more traffic and sales, it is advisable for e-commerce businesses to change their websites so that they are mobile friendly; it is simply good business to do so. Within a span of three years, most people surfing the Internet will be doing so on mobile devices. Business should not leave mobile users with no other choice but to abandon their websites because they can’t navigate them from mobile devices. Not making a business website mobile friendly is akin to hand delivering customers to competitors.
How to make your website mobile friendly
To benefit from the mobile market, businesses should note that the rules for SEO are different for mobile friendly websites. Google recommends that SEO marketers use a responsive website design approach. This means using CSS3 media queries to alter the way a page renders on mobile devices. According to Google, this method includes having one URL, which makes it much easier for users to interact with a webpage. This enables Google’s algorithms to assign indexing properties to website content. It is more efficient because the Google crawler won’t have to crawl through multiple pages. Many business owners find these new rules to be daunting, and they are not alone.
The valuable time of e-commerce website owners is usually devoted to servicing their existing customers. They do not want to have to devote extra time to solve high-tech issues. However, it is important that their websites are easy to navigate on mobile devices in order to stay relevant with today’s consumers. Although many e-commerce businesses are becoming aware of the need for a fluid website, they are not sure how to make it happen.
If you are interested in learning more about how to make your website mobile friendly, contact Scale for a FREE consultation.
