The Importance of Having a Mobile-Friendly Website

Welcome to the age of technology. It wasn’t long ago that the idea of carrying a computer in your pocket was entirely ludicrous, but here we are with 65% of Americans owning smartphones at the end of 2013.

Now more than ever before, people are turning to their mobile devices to find businesses and services, which means that if you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you will quickly be falling behind the competition.

What does ‘mobile-friendly’ mean?

Websites that are mobile friendly—also known as responsive design—don’t just mean websites that are able to be viewed on a phone or mobile device. Virtually all websites can be viewed on mobiles devices, but the term “mobile-friendly” has more to do with how they’re viewed on mobile devices.

A non-mobile-friendly website requires zooming and scrolling to find and read information. Text either appears way too small to read or it runs off the page, images are hard to see correctly, and links are hard to find and harder to click.

A mobile-friendly website reformats according to the type of device a viewer is using. The texts adjusts itself to fit within the screen and resizes to become easy to read. The navigation menu compresses into an easy-to-manage dropdown menu and the buttons become bigger for an easier click. Everything becomes a single, easy-to-navigate column that effortlessly takes you town the page.

See it for yourself by going to StudioPress.com. Enter a website in the bar at the top of the menu and see how it looks across multiple devices. If the text runs off the page or if the navigation menu doesn’t condense, the site is not mobile-friendly.

How do I know my clients are using mobile devices to view my site?

Trust us, they are. Mobile usage is undeniably increasing. We have officially reached an age of mobile internet traffic surpassing desktop traffic. At the beginning of 2014, 60% of internet access was made on a mobile device.

What’s more, the behavior of mobile devices users is different than that of desktop users. Mobile device users are looking to make an action. They go to a website with a goal to buy something, search for a location or specific information about something, or for a quick way to call or contact you. And because of that sense of urgency and purpose, 40% of mobile users will leave a website if it is not mobile friendly.

That’s about 25% of potential clients you’re losing simply from having a non-mobile-friendly website.

And while those are some impressive numbers and statistics we presented you, here are some other great reasons why mobile-friendly websites are a must:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Google announced last year with its Hummingbird update that it will be favoring sites with responsive design, meaning that if you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, it could actually hurt your SEO and your search result rankings.
• Increased Conversions: Whether it’s putting a button front and center to “Schedule an Appointment Now!” or putting a click-to-call phone number front and center on your page, sites that are mobile friendly and that utilize these simple calls to action see a dramatic increase in results. At Brighter Vision, our clients actually see an average of a 28% increase in potential clients calling them just from this alone.
• Mobile users spend more time on your site: This means that especially if your site has an excellent blog or resource page, users will be more willing to spend time reading your site on their phone (if your site is mobile-friendly) than they would on a desktop.

At Brighter Vision, every website we create is mobile-friendly because we understand that this is the design of the future and want to give our clients a leg-up on the competition now and set them up for success far into the future. Call us today for a free consultation to find out if our web services are right for you.

About Perry Rosenbloom

Perry Rosenbloom is the CEO & Founder of Brighter Vision, the worldwide leader in custom therapist website design. His connection to therapy and therapists runs deep: His mother-in-law owns a private practice in Jacksonville, FL, his father-in-law is in recovery and just received his 30 year chip, his Uncle (who he never met) died at a very young age due to drug use, and the heroin epidemic has hit his hometown very hard. With so many connections to therapy and therapists, he is immensely proud to be able to help support them in their work and enable them to be successful business owners.