Before we dive into why having a mobile responsive website is absolutely crucial to the overall success of your digital marketing strategy, let’s clarify exactly what mobile responsive means.
A responsive website automatically scales it’s layout to the size of the device it’s being viewed on. This makes it easier to navigate, especially on a mobile device. Also referred to as a mobile friendly site, responsive website typically includes elements like:
-No horizontal scrolling
-Large buttons/tabs that are not too close together
-Those three lines you click on to expand a mobile navigation bar
-Text that does not require zoom
-Images that will “stack” as your screen size gets smaller so they are visible without zoom.
Over 50% of website traffic comes from mobile devices and has been on a constant incline over the past few years. The number of mobile phone users is quickly approaching the 5 billion mark internationally and is not expected to level off anytime soon. We live in a world that has every bit of information accessible at our fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If your mobile website is a miniature version of your desktop and requires you to zoom in to attempt to see images or text, you don’t have a responsive website. If you have ever experienced what I just described, you probably already understand how important a mobile responsive website actually is for user experience! Mobile users expect websites to be mobile friendly so if you are not on board yet, you need to catch up ASAP.
As of April 2015, it’s not only important to users that our website be fully responsive, but it has a direct impact on where you rank on Google. Google quickly realized the rise of mobile traffic, and because they are in the people business too, made it a priority to factor in the responsive element since it provides a better user experience to end consumers.
Having a mobile friendly website increases consumer interaction with your website, keeps them on the site longer, and creates a seamless user experience that will increase the chances of them returning. If your website is difficult to use or requires too much time and effort, you can almost guarantee you will lose that customer to a competitor that has a responsive website.
If you are still unsure if your website is fully responsive, take a look at it on several different screen sizes and watch how it changes. Don’t confuse a mobile design with a responsive website. Prior to a responsive design, different sizes of a website were coded out to resolve issues with user experience on smaller devices. While this is still a better option than no mobile design at all, it does not account for the vast variety in tablet and mobile phone screen sizes that are available today. It also typically means you have a separate URL for your mobile site version, which requires maintenance of essentially two websites, and more indexing on Google’s part. Google prefers a fully responsive design and your consumers will too.
If you think you need a website make over, we are happy to help! Klout9 has an awesome in house design and development team dedicated to building out fully responsive websites that are focused on incorporating marketing elements and best website practices. Contact us for a free website audit.