Why It’s Vital That Your Website Performs Well On Smartphones

There’s no doubt that our smartphones have become essential to the way we live. Not only are they fundamental to how we communicate, learn, and purchase, they are our entertainment, our alarm clock, our calendar, and our virtual assistant.

Despite this trend, a startling number of websites still are not smartphone-friendly—that is, the way they present their content may be great for laptop or desktop users but isn’t optimized for small-screen viewing. If your site is one of them, it’s probably costing you money.

Let’s look at a few reasons your website must perform well on mobile …

People Use Their Phones During the Purchasing Process

There are over 230 million smartphone users in the United States. The 2018 ROBO (Research Online Buy Offline) study on Bazaarvoice showed that 82% of consumers consult their phones when researching a product before purchase—even if they buy the product offline! And when we look back at the 2018 holiday buying season, we find that about 40% of holiday purchases were made using a smartphone.

Overall, 79% of smartphone users report having made purchases using their phones, and that number shows no signs of weakening. Can you really afford to have a website that performs poorly on mobile?

Poor Performance Alienates Consumers

There are few better ways to put off a potential customer than offering them a website that’s glitchy, laggy, or simply difficult or confusing to navigate. Today’s consumers want rapid and seamless access to information, whether they’re researching products, comparison shopping, or looking to make a purchase. Offer them anything less than optimal mobile performance, and they’re likely to navigate away from your website and end up on a competitor’s site.

Mobile-Friendly Sites Earn Higher Search Rankings

In July of 2018, Google started prioritizing mobile-friendly websites in its search algorithm. Under the new algorithm, slow sites may see a decrease in mobile organic ranking. So, if search rank is important to how your customers find you—and when isn’t it?—you can only gain by optimizing your site for mobile performance.

Consider a Responsive Website

Maintaining a site that’s smartphone-friendly and another better suited to laptop or desktop users can be costly and labor intensive. Keeping your sites fresh and consistent is essential. That means continually updating content, managing time-sensitive campaigns, and engaging with customers on two separate sites. A responsive site offers the advantage of unifying your online presence. A responsive site “knows” what device is being used to view it, and it adapts accordingly. On a responsive site, graphic elements, photos, and video are seamlessly integrated into the text, assuring a superior user experience, regardless of the device.

Also, with a responsive website, you can say goodbye to clumsy paragraph and line breaks, endless scrolling, and many other inconveniences that can quickly alienate the smartphone user. Best of all, you’ll only have to manage one iteration of your site! Many tools show you how well your site scores from a mobile perspective, like this one from Googe.

At Mighty 8th Media, we are dedicated to building agile, optimized, high-performance websites for our clients. Our designers are well aware of the valued role mobile customers play in the world of e-commerce. When we create a website, we ensure premium functionality and exemplary user experience from any device! Contact us today and learn how Mighty 8th Media can help build your brand.