Browse the web reducing by 90% your energy consumption!
That is exactly what is happening: with smartphones we all need just 1 finger to browse internet. Other 9 can rest!
Welcome to the second post of a series of 4 to help you improving your Mobile SEO:
- Missed first post? Have a look here to discover the technology shift beneath Mobile SEO: How are you chasing your rabbit?
- Top 7 Advantages of a Mobile-Optimized Website. Today we’ll find out how your online business can take advantage from the mobile revolution.
- Why Mobile SEO affects your Google ranking? We’ll see how Google is pushing Mobile-friendly websites.
- What can you do right now? We’ll eventually see which tools are already available to maximize your website Mobile SEO.
Last time we learned that internet users are already device-agnostic: roughly 4 out of 5 use either a PC, a smartphone or a tablet, indifferently.
We also learned that mobile usage will rapidly increase by 2019: new types of devices will come up (like smart watches); devices will become more and more powerful; mobile networks will become faster and more reliable; flat tariffs will come back as opposed as consumption tariffs.
Why you MUST be ready for this?
Here you are with 7 reasons. Pick up your preferred one!
YOU GET MORE BUSINESS
I believe it’s pretty intuitive that services such as shops, transports, deliveries, personal services, etc. increase their business through mobile-friendly layouts and simple and fast forms. Imagine this scene: I am commuting back home and I do not feel like cooking this night. Guess where I order my tapas: from that funky website with the phone number hidden into a double dropdown menu, of your nice and neat website, where I can order with a swipe of my finger?
What probably is less intuitive is that any business can actually benefit from a mobile friendly website.
What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today, A Google study on more than 1,000 US web users, explains why. That study is 2 years old now, but as contemporary as ever nowadays.
- 61% of people said that they’d quickly move onto another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site.
- 67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site than a non-mobile friendly one.
- When they visited a mobile-friendly site, 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future.
- 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site.
- 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn’t mobile-friendly.
- 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly.
Not convinced yet? Go ahead reading then!
GOOGLE AND BING RANK YOU HIGHER
Generally speaking, if you want to be found online you must format your website according to top search engines advice. From this specific extent, Google announced that from April 21, 2015 its new algorithm favors mobile-responsive websites. So, for instance, even a two-folded website (desktop and mobile) won’t work; you must have a unique URL that will adapt to the screen. Also, in this way you won’t be penalized for having duplicated content.
GOOGLE LABEL MOBILE-FRIENDLY WEBSITE
Google officially launched a mobile-friendly label in the mobile search results on November 18, 2014. If your website is not mobile-friendly it will be very clear to users and they will be less likely to visit your website through mobile devices.
BETTER BACK-LINKING
Along with better search engine rank, a unique URL results in a stronger linking setup. All your backlinks will point to the same domain instead of being split between desktop website and mobile website, which implies a higher overall rank of your pages.
REDUCED LOAD TIME
Let’s say you have 2 websites: desktop and mobile. Somebody shares via email or instant messaging your desktop URL, and the recipient hit the link on a mobile device. Result? Bad user experience due to long loading time, which will possibly end up as a bounced visitor if the mobile network is weak. You’ve just lost a potential customer. And, talking about speed, let’s consider the other way round: mobile optimized websites load faster on desktop and laptops!
IMPROVED ACCESSIBILITY
Same scenario. Do I need to list everything? Tiny fonts, elongated design, pinch-and-scroll, etc. These will not only affect impaired users, but will annoy any other user too.
LOWER MAINTENANCE COST
A mobile-responsive website may cost a little more upfront, but has much lower maintenance cost. You do not need to reformat and duplicate content or add features twice, like you would do using a desktop and a mobile website. Same for bug fixes or SEO campaigns.
We’ve seen WHY we need to be ready for mobile internet browsing, let’s see very quickly HOW.
There are 2 options.
First – and rather radical – is killing your mobile website and moving your business to apps in the Play Store for Android’s devices and in the Apple Store for iOS’s.
Flipkart and Myntra, 2 Indian eCommerce players are going down this route, learn more here. They have already 90% of traffic and 72% of orders from mobile apps, so want to facilitate their customers.
The underline opportunity is that 72% of Indian population do mobile search, and internet users will grow in 3 years from 200 million to 500 million, so you can imagine the market size.
If you don’t feel comfortable – or your business doesn’t fit – such a radical approach, you must have a mobile-friendly website anyway: a unique URL that dynamically adapt its appearance to the device.
A mobile-friendly website has immediate benefits, from improved search results all the way through boosting your business, especially if you are one of those that must be found on the go.
Websites should have a responsive layout, adjusting their appearance to suit users’ screen, and also make easy getting in touch with you, through phone, email, or even walking!
In this way you’ll stand up from the crowd and get a competitive advantage across 80% of your users, which do browse with mobile devices. And you get better results among desktop users too, thanks to higher search engine ranking, better back-linking and faster load time.
Your website is not mobile-optimized? No panic. Chances are it can be converted quite simply. Or, alternatively, there are tons of templates you can pick up and personalize to your business.
Guessing how? Keep following us, we’ll see next time!
2 Comments on “Top 7 Advantages of a Mobile-Optimized Website”
Mobile optimized sites simply mean more business conversions. All the major search engines, especially Google is stressing on mobile-friendly sites and especially on Responsive Web Design (RWD).
A RWD is easier to build than dynamic serving and mobile separate sites where additional technical over-heads make things expensive and hard to implement.
The points you mentioned are absolutely right and should be considered by those webmasters and site owners who are still not building their sites mobile optimized. Make it before 21st April ’15.
Yeah, 21st of April is the date to watch out these days. We’ll see what the real outcome will be.