Five Reasons Your Website Needs to Be Mobile-Friendly

Does your website look good on mobile devices?

Mobile devices have now overtaken desktop computers as the most popular way to browse the web. This means up to half of your online customers could be finding you through their phones.

To cater to your mobile-using customers, your website needs to be responsive. Responsive websites automatically reshape and resize based on the screen size, giving your customers a better browsing experience.

If your website is not responsive, you could be losing a lot of business. Here are five reasons why!

1

52% of Users Say a Poor Mobile Experience Makes Them Less Likely to Buy from a Company

Online, people get frustrated very easily, and that’s even more true on mobile devices. As we've previously discussed on this blog, user experience matters.

A good user experience means a fast-loading website with a clean and clear navigation. Your customers can quickly find the information they need, and they don’t have to wait all day for pages to load.

If you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, the phone’s browser will usually shrink your full-size website down to fit the smaller screen. This means customers will have to zoom in and out to use the site.

Unfortunately, because this takes a lot of effort, the majority of users simply won’t bother. A responsive site, on the other hand, turns visitors into customers.

2

61% of Mobile Users Will Move on to Another Site If They Don’t Find What They We’re Looking for Right Away

The key words here are “right away” -- sometimes within five seconds.

You’ve probably had this experience yourself – you’re looking to buy something online, so you find a website. But it takes ages to load, and you can’t find the product or information you’re after.

Do you plod on, and try to figure out how to use the website? Of course not – if you wanted to solve a puzzle you’d buy a Rubik’s Cube! No -- you go back to Google and try the next website in the results.

Part of the solution to this lies in design – you need to make sure your site is easy to understand and simple to use. But it’s also about organisation – making your important pages easy to find.

3

80% of Local Searches on Mobile Convert

Searches like “restaurant Bradford,” “hairdresser Leeds,” or “travel agent London” will lead to a sale 4 out of 5 times.

This is crucial for businesses that serve local people. Shoppers research brick-and-mortar businesses with their phones, and then decide which one they will call, or visit in person.

Furthermore, female shoppers are more likely than males to research local businesses in this way. So if your primary target audience is female, having a responsive website is even more important.

4

86% of Users Have Stopped Using an App Due to Poor Performance

If you have an app for your business, you have even more concerns. With mobile apps, uninstalling is the default behaviour. In fact, 80% of apps get uninstalled within 90 days!

One of the biggest reasons for this is performance. If your app takes a long time to load, or if there is a long delay when switching between different screens, your customers might reach for that “Uninstall” button.

As well as performance, design matters too. Is the app functional? Is it easy to use? Does it look good? Get any of these wrong, and people will flock to a competitor.

5

96% of Smartphone Users Have Come Across Sites That Aren’t Designed for Mobiles

Even in 2018 when everyone and their dog seems to have a smartphone, thousands of businesses are still operating without a responsive website.

Believe it or not, that’s actually good news! In all likelihood, many of your competitors won’t have responsive sites yet.

If your own site isn’t mobile-friendly, don’t worry – we can help! We can build responsive, high-performance mobile sites that suit your business as well as your budget. Contact us today and get an edge over your competition.