Mobile Friendly Website: One Business Necessity You May Have Been Ignoring

This blog post was originally posted on CloudRedux.com

The genesis of small ideas reinforce big businesses.

Sadly, today big businesses stand on a staggered bridge if their online strategies are not up to the mark.

Earlier, every business owner was content with how his product was perceived as there was no virtual audience to encourage or criticize the product. The reception of a product’s feedback was close to zero due to limited traditional marketing tools & techniques. But today it’s a shame if you fail to create your visibility in the online market. Probably that’s how e-Commerce came into picture.

With online marketing measurement tools like online surveys, feedback pop-ups, reviews on social media pages, YouTube ads and various others; it has become easier now to measure or assess the impact of your efforts.

A website is a critical and inexpensive element of your business and never ever than before must you have felt the need to have a mobile friendly website.

The audience has evolved and by all means, they are now looking for everything on their mobile devices. And we all know how smartphones have taken over. But,

What happens when you don’t have a mobile friendly website?

Recently, a friend bought some clothes that are in vogue from an e-Commerce website, which she stumbled upon and recommended to me. When I decided to check it out on my phone, it took forever to load. Since it was a friend’s recommendation, I decided to have some patience and waited long enough for the website to load. Once it loaded, the fonts were poor and so tiny that I could hardly find anything. Menu and product filters were hidden somewhere and gave me a difficult time. Eventually, I abandoned it. The point is that I waited long enough only because of my friend’s recommendation, but that barely happens.

Heard of Google’s Mobile First Index?

The reason I talk about Google as a reference point for SERP performance in this blog is solely based on a belief (and it is strictly personal) that Google is the most-preferred search engine today. There are other (probably better) search engines too that do commendable job, but when it comes to a wider audience reach, Google tops the list and hence, the preference.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the talk of the internet world is Google’s Mobile First Index. With a growing number of mobile users, Google now prioritizes websites that perform equally well or better on mobile screen sizes.

The criterion to decide what pages rank have changed and the focus has shifted to how adaptable is your website on mobile, tablets and other handheld devices. It simply transpires to this:

If you have a website designed for mobile phone and desktop, the search engine will prefer websites that perform well on mobile. And if you don’t have a mobile site yet, the ranking will be based on your regular desktop website.

However, even if you have a responsive site, mobile-first indexing will hardly affect you.

The point is that Google will prioritize mobile over desktop, encouraging people to either have an optimized mobile website along with desktop version or at least resort to a responsive site.

So, why should you have a mobile friendly website?

Because:

Google wants you to..

The fact is that Google now favors websites which are mobile friendly enough and quickly digs out those websites every time a user performs a search. These websites would lead in SERPs because they provide better user experience. When Google rolled out this update, many big names already anticipated these changes and were ready before others could fathom it.

Your business clients want you to..

For B2B sales, today it has become a trend and a necessity to have a smooth functioning mobile friendly website for business credibility. There’s a fair possibility of you never acquiring a chunk of business clients because processes like mobile friendly websites are critical to them. And trust me you’re already losing a big chunk.

And everyone else wants you to..

The whole world is using their mobile devices now. From baby boomers to millennials to everybody else (if there is) are using mobile phones to make small & big purchases. The fact that we’d rather visit a website using a mobile device is very high than using a desktop. A huge number of population is drifting towards mobile phones.

Furthermore, whenever a user tries to open your website on a mobile device and if it is slow or not responsive, the chances of him ever coming back to your website is highly unlikely. There goes your precious customer!

That’s all about everyone associated with your business. But,

What are the ultimate goals of having a mobile friendly website?

• Well, to name a few, we have — ever growing customer reach, increased web traffic, a rise in customer engagement and a boost in sales. Eventually, you showcase your business anywhere and everywhere, allowing an easier and immediate access to customers.
• A super rich user experience through site speed, appealing design, discreet fonts, structured & prudent content and compelling CTAs. All in all, a wonderful experience for users to consider their time spent wisely, resulting in recommendations and a better ROI.
• A mobile user has a particularly different mindset than a desktop user. Their thought process is quicker; if things take a while, they are no good to them. In the experience mentioned above in this blog; I, as a mobile user, decided to abandon an e-Commerce website upon noticing its poor functioning. Imagine how many customers you’ve been losing! The goal is to make your website so compelling and mobile friendly that users remain engaged throughout.

The future is mobile and for a business to thrive, it should be their utmost priority to keep up with such evolving processes as they say ‘Change is the only constant.’

Is your website ‘mobile-friendly’? Check now.