Latest Insider: How Mobile Optimization Can Help You Conquer the Competition
We are now in the era of mobile technology. It comes as no surprise that technology is transforming the world, and statistics are consistently showing a rise in the number of smartphone users around the globe. Users are spending more and more time on their handheld devices. We are now past the era of laptops and desktop workstations.
Consumers nowadays prefer to use their handheld devices to do most of their tasks which they could do on their laptops, from checking social media, updating to-do lists, and reading the news.
Let us get straight to the point: if you fail to recognize the need for mobile optimization, you could lose half of your potential customers around the world, seeing that 80% of internet users own a smartphone.
Due to the rise of mobile usage, more and more consumers spend their time online, and their numbers only continue to grow. Moreover, parallel to the growth in mobile consumerism, users are doing most of their online shopping and news hunting online.
If this is not enough to convince you to join the mobile innovation, here are seven more reasons why mobile web design is essential and highly relevant.
Mobile is Everywhere
With the majority of the world, accessing the internet through their fingertips, it is important to have a website designed to adapt itself across different platforms, be it on mobile screens or desktop monitors. This concept is known better as "responsive design."
Google says that 61 percent of users are less likely to return to a website they had trouble accessing or navigating, and 40 percent turn to the competitor's site instead. Is your company dismissing the mobile experience? Not only will you turn away potential clients, but you might as well ask them to vouch for the competition instead.
Mobile optimization gives your company a competitive edge over the competition. Looking at the data, the total number of searches from mobile devices now significantly outnumber desktop or laptop searches.
Mobile optimization gives your company a competitive edge over the competition. Looking at the data, the total number of searches from mobile devices now significantly outnumber desktop or laptop searches. With a mobile-friendly design and responsive user interface, you can use this to attract more people to your site and have them keep coming back.
Google Approves
Google, the most popular search engine around the globe, likes their websites responsive and fluid and favors them in search engine rankings. As Google continuously updates its search algorithms, they are now catering to mobile sites that meet the right responsiveness criteria, such as:
- Web sites with proper zoom support
- Scalable content, such as text and graphics
- Fluid navigation panels
- No unnecessary pop-ups or redirects
- Consolidation of web pages into a single URL
Responsive websites achieve higher rankings since they provide a better user experience. Additionally, it is essential to note that a high search ranking for your site on a desktop does not necessarily mean that it will rank well on a smartphone search.
Seeing that Google drives 94 percent of the mobile search traffic, it can be critical for your site if you fail to optimize it for mobile viewing. Not to mention the need for fast load times, knowing that 53 percent of Internet users are prone to abandoning mobile pages if they take longer than three seconds to load.
Establish Your Brand
As a popular quote goes, "A good brand provides a clear and memorable sense of what your business stands for."
A company that makes a mark in the customer's mind and leaves a positive impression on their user experience leads to trust and brand loyalty. This mindset has been the mantra for online influencers and blogger outreach specialists where influence matters most.
To achieve brand awareness, you should have a clear picture of what your brand embodies. After conceiving an effective branding strategy, you can apply it to any form of marketing strategy or tech platform. Some of the factors that go into creating and cultivating a brand are:
- Define the buyer persona. Who are my customers? What do they need?
- Reward loyalty. How can I give back to my loyal customers? How can I provide them with a sense of empowerment when they avail of my services?
- Know the competition. Who are my competitors? To what extent is their brand established?
- Know where you stand. Where do I stand in the market? What is my brand value? Is my brand relevant and distinct enough to attract potential customers? What goes into people's minds once they think about or hear about my brand?
These guide questions will help you in tailoring the best mobile experience for your clients. Overall, a user-friendly mobile site is going to lead to satisfied customers, and in the age of social media, happy customers will most likely share your site among their social circles and peer groups.
Land Your Landing Pages
When promoting a business online, you are ultimately aiming for one goal, and that is to earn sales-generating leads. In designing a website to promote your products and services, you want to ensure that your website compels your customers enough to make them want to stay and avail of your commodities.
From ecommerce websites, such as Amazon and eBay, to an SEO service like Johnny Chen Media, and online food kiosks, you need to create an attractive and fascinating landing page. Internet marketers spend an enormous amount of time and effort in crafting the perfect landing page for sales to catch on.
Unlike the big screen advantage of desktop monitors, what might work for your traditional desktop screens won't be any good for the tiny mobile display. It's bound to look like a cluttered mess if not done properly. You need to accommodate your landing page to fit the following criteria, such as:
- Clear brand indent
- Short but catchy headline
- Minimalist, easy to navigate design
- A visible CTA (Call To Action) Button
- Lightning-fast page load times
Consider the content you show. When designing mobile-friendly websites, analyze the content’s length carefully. When creating a mobile landing page, internet marketers often tend to overlook the user experience. In the course of introducing every possible piece of information, you could end up turning off potential customers from information overload.
Some potential barriers to the optimal user experience are pop-ups and unresponsive design bugs. Interstitial forms might be easy to close on a desktop, but the same pop-up on the phone might be too small to tap close, causing 69 percent of Internet users to close the website without any sign of engagement.
Good thing Google decided to start penalizing websites with meddlesome pop-ups and pesky interfaces.
Cross-Platform Reach
People are increasing their span of online activities using their mobile devices. From what started as a new ecommerce platform, most of the internet is now adapting to the mobile overhaul. Sites are now renovated to be more user-friendly for blog sites, or as a blogger outreach platform, creative portfolios, and almost every other niche there is.
Your customers are on the go, and they're accessing your website from their mobile devices. They aren't spending their time in front of desktops or flicking through TV ads. Now, what does this mean for your business? If you don't give your customers the visibility and ease they want so that they can browse and shop on the run, they'll go somewhere else.
Mobile access to content is on top of the masses’ priorities, or else you’ll miss out on 91 percent of your market. If your website isn't mobile-friendly, you'll lose business if you haven't already.
Conversion Rates are Growing
When you see a ‘subscribe to our newsletter’ pop up in front of your computer screen, your first impulse is to shake your head and click on the ‘x’ button to continue browsing the site. Desktop websites in mobile browsers are failing to convert curious visitors into buyers.
Mobile shoppers have little to no tolerance for dysfunctional websites and as statistics dictate, will leave a transaction unfinished if the site isn’t mobile user-friendly.
Make use of the fact that 80 percent of online shoppers are impulse-driven and more prone to make some small purchases compared to a single lump sum, given that your website provides a seamless customer experience.
Mobile Ads are Still in the Dark
Tech fads come and go such as floppy disks, the Atari joystick, and pagers. But one thing is for sure: mobile is here to stay. In the same way that mobile possesses an incredible opportunity for brand recognition, it also provides an excellent marketing revenue potential.
It is the opportune time to invest in mobile marketing. As of now, only 8 percent of ad spending goes to mobile ads. But this avenue won't stay underutilised for long as mobile ad dollars are expected to skyrocket to a couple million pounds in the next three years.
Use mobile optimization to your favour and invest in mobile ad spending.
Takeaway
Mobile is slowly taking over the tech world. It is rapidly penetrating the digital marketing and internet advertising industries. In a society where we spend most of our waking hours on our mobile phones, doing our daily tasks and to-do's, it is imperative for every business to embrace the era of mobile optimisation.
Mobile users are growing at a steady pace, and the internet continues to adjust to the benefit of the mobile generation. Safeguard your business and invest in good mobile optimization or risk losing out on potential leads and search engine rankings.