5 Benefits of a Mobile Friendly (Responsive) Website for Small Businesses

Here’s a quick test for you: We’d like you to visualize what your website looks like. (Go ahead… we’ll wait.)

Now what did you see? Most of you probably envisioned the desktop or full version of your website. This is the default “home” of your site, but not all of your games will be played at home; you also need to win some away games. For people who view your site on the go with their smartphones or tablets, the mobile or responsive version is the default “home” of your site. How do you earn there? We’re glad you asked.

Is your site mobile friendly (or, as we like to call it, “finger friendly”)?

Creating a mobile site is more than just cramming your desktop site into a smaller screen size. Mobile users are typically more goal-oriented and focus on a more limited set of tasks. Your mobile site must respond directly and quickly, or you’ll sit on the sidelines and lose viewers, who are ready to buy, to your competitors.

With so many people searching for information on their mobile devices these days, 80% of internet users own and search the web on their smartphones. It seems that Google has determined (along with the rest of the world, it seems) that if you’re not mobile, you’re toast. However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore customers who are still using desktops and laptops. They still represent an important part of your customer base and new prospects.

Stop hanging around on the bench and get in the game. Here are 5 reasons to create a mobile website:

1. Because Google said so. (This is kind of like the “because I said so” argument from your parents when you were little.) Google’s newest algorithm ranks mobile-optimized websites higher in search results on mobile devices. Now, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, Google will recognize it and be less likely to show it as a legitimate search result. That makes sense, since Google wouldn’t be doing its job if half of the displayed results were useless to mobile users.
2. Stand out from the competition. Less than 10% of businesses have mobile-optimized websites, but it’s quickly becoming a top priority. So acting fast will give you a competitive advantage!
3. It’s what your customers want, and they expect you to provide it. In 2014, mobile users accessing the Internet surpassed desktop users for the first time ever! Increasingly, your customers aren’t sitting in front of desktops or laptops. Instead, they are on the go accessing your website from their mobile devices. What does that mean for you? If you don’t give customers what they want—easy visibility and navigation so they can browse and shop on the go—they’ll go elsewhere. With the increased use of mobile devices, having a poorly developed mobile website or not having one at all is as useless as a screen door on a submarine; it will simply sink to the back of the customer’s mind.
4. Getting a mobile website is relatively inexpensive and often easy to set up.
5. A mobile-optimized website can increase user engagement. Research shows that a mobile-optimized site can generate nearly twice the average traffic per user than non-mobile-optimized sites. The most engaged users spend more time on it and therefore they will see more of what you have to offer.

So how do you go about creating a mobile-optimized site?

Don’t just try to “tweak” your existing desktop website to try and make it so.

Smartphones have smaller screens and often distort images that look good on desktop websites. Reduce your site to just the essential features, with content that includes links to pages of secondary information. You should also enlarge the interface elements (buttons, etc.) to make it easier to navigate with the touch screen.

Why should you care?

According to Google, 85% of Americans are never more than three feet from their cell phones. And a recent Search Engine Watch blog says that 80% of searches start on a mobile device. If your website is not mobile friendly, potential customers will quickly look for a site that is. It’s just smart business to design your website to be mobile-friendly, as many customers access the web on the go.