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If you have a business website, it is likely that you have put a lot of time and money into creating an online presence for your company. The last thing you want to do is be left out by not having a mobile-friendly website. This article will help explain why this is so important.
The Importance of Making Your Website Mobile Friendly
The importance of making your website mobile-friendly cannot be understated. Users are accessing the web more and more through their phones, which means you need to make sure they have a great experience when they visit your site. Here are some stats that show why it’s so important:
- In 2010, there were only 1 billion worldwide smartphone users. Today, that number has increased to 2.5 billion people worldwide who own a smartphone (and this number is expected to grow significantly in the next few years).
- Of those 2.5 billion smartphone owners: 45% use their phones for daily internet access; and 75% use them every day or almost every day when they're looking for information or services.
- The number of mobile device users has surpassed desktop computers as the most popular way to access the web.
Mobile users are browsing on their phones more than ever before (40% more often than desktop users), which means it’s crucial for sites to meet those needs in order to keep up with demand and avoid losing customers as people switch between devices throughout their days at work or home life—or even just when running errands around town!
There’s no denying that mobile-friendliness is a must for any website. Let’s learn more about what “mobile-friendly” means.
A Brief Overview
So what exactly does it mean to be "mobile-friendly?"
A website is mobile-friendly if it can be viewed on any device. A mobile-friendly website is optimized for viewing on a mobile device; in other words, it's specifically designed to make the browsing experience easy and pleasant when you're using your phone or tablet. Mobile devices are different from desktop computers, and this means that the site design needs to be adjusted accordingly before you can consider it "mobile-friendly."
To understand what makes up a mobile-friendly site, let's first look at some of the differences between desktop computers and mobile phones:
- Screen size: Desktop monitors are typically larger than most phones' screens. When you visit a web page on your computer screen, there’s more room for content that isn't visible when visiting with your phone (which has only about 10% more screen real estate than an index card).
- Input methods: You use your fingers on touchscreens instead of mouse clicks or keyboard strokes when browsing on phones and tablets—this requires different ways of interacting with content on websites.
- Connectivity speeds vary greatly depending on whether people access sites through Wi-Fi or LTE (or other types of cellular) networks; therefore bandwidths needed vary widely too--and sometimes even within one service provider network!
- Screen orientation: You can rotate your phone to view websites horizontally or vertically (landscape vs. portrait). The layout of web pages has to be flexible enough so that it doesn't break when you're viewing it sideways.
It’s important to consider all these factors when designing your website.
Streamlined User Experience
One of the biggest reason sto ensure that your site is mobile-friendly is to maintain a streamlined user experience.
You want to make sure that it's easy for people to use and understand, with no confusion or obstacles getting in the way of their goals. To provide a streamlined user experience for mobile visitors, you need to have a website that's compatible with mobile devices.
To do this, consider using a responsive design for your site so that it will automatically resize based on the size of the screen being used. For example, if someone is using a desktop computer with an HD monitor (1920 x 1080), their browser window may be quite large—but if they were viewing via smartphone at 320 x 480 resolution instead and had limited space available due to legibility issues caused by small text size or low resolution display screens found in many older model cell phones still being used today (a problem common among older adults
Website builder like Jemi automatically make your site mobile responsive.
Improve Your Conversion Rate
If your site isn't mobile-friendly, you're missing out on a lot of potential business. In fact, there are several reasons why you need to make sure your site is mobile-friendly:
- Mobile users expect sites to be easy to navigate and mobile friendly. If it isn't, they'll leave the site without doing any buying or taking any other action on your part (this is referred to as "bounce rate").
- Sites that aren't mobile friendly are unlikely to be shared through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook because people access these websites via their phones or tablets much more often than they do desktop computers.
- A website that's not optimized for search engines won’t appear high up in search results when someone searches for something related to your business or product.
This is another business reason to prioritize mobile responsiveness for your site.
Better Search Visibility
Finally, let's talk about search visibility & SEO.
It's no secret that mobile visitors have increased over the years. A study by Statista shows that mobile users are now responsible for more than half of all global web traffic, and that number is only continuing to grow.
But if you're not designing your website with mobile devices in mind, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers and sales because Google (and other search engines) favor websites that work well on smartphones and tablets. To help search engines better understand what's going on with your site when viewed on a smartphone or tablet screen, they should be mobile responsive.
Moreover, if your website is not mobile friendly, you could be at risk of being penalized by Google. In April 2015, Google announced that they would begin using mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in their search algorithm. They are actively flagging websites that are not mobile friendly and sending them warnings to make the necessary changes. They have even gone so far as to warn their algorithmically ranked sites that they may be penalized if they do not make these changes!
By using responsive design techniques, you'll be able to rank higher in Google search results for keywords associated with mobile use.
Get Started with Jemi Today
If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, your users will have a bad experience. They might be annoyed by a slow load time and poor user interface that may make it more difficult to navigate the page or purchase products.
Adults will have a better experience on smartphones than they do on desktop computers. If you want to keep them coming back for more, make sure you create user experiences that are optimized for their devices!
Need help creating a mobile responsive website? Turn to Jemi!
Jemi is a mobile website builder that’s easy to use, affordable and a one-stop solution for your website. It has everything you need to set up your business online with ease. Plus, everything is fully responsive, so you won’t have to worry about any negative effects of non-mobile-friendly sites that we discussed in this article.
The best part? You don't need to know a single line of code! Jemi uses drag-and-drop technology to make building your digital space a breeze. Use one of the many pre-made templates, or get creative by building your site from nothing.
Check out what Jemi offers today, and experience the benefits of mobile responsiveness for yourself! Sign up here.