How Important Is a Mobile Responsive Website?

Even back in 2014, the Huffington Post was already discussing the reasons why optimising for a responsive website world was important.

Google announced in 2016 that more than 50% of search queries originated from a mobile device. Hitwise also reported that mobile search volume is as high as 58% from data analysed between April and May in 2016.

Having mobile-friendly websites is important because mobile users tend to behave differently when interacting with businesses online. They access content in short bursts during windows of opportunity. That means a mobile user seeks high-quality information that is easy to consume within a window of only a few seconds.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Responsive Website?

It’s not just 50+% of generalised traffic that websites receive from mobile devices. It is more than half of all e-commerce traffic as well. Which ultimately means around half of your potential customers are using a mobile device to shop or look for information.

If you dont have a responsive website design, then there is no way to fully maximise the potential of your business online. It is to your advantage to upgrade your website to a mobile-friendly experience. Here are some of the advantages you can see if you transform your site.

Mobile users are bigger spenders

Fast Company reports that tablet users spend 20% more per purchase than desktop or laptop users. More remarkably, tablet users spend 50% more than smartphone users. If your website is difficult to use on a mobile device, then you’re losing revenue.

Search engines value mobile friendliness

Modern SEO strategies look at the overall value of a site from multiple perspectives. One valuable parameter is how responsive a site is for mobile users. Since 2015, Google has tended to prefer responsive websites over websites that are not. The future of Google is also fairly clear too. They will soon put your websites ‘mobile experience’ first when considering the performance of your website and hence where you fit in the rankings.

It is easier to share information through social media

Mobile devices are an excellent sharing tool. With just a click or two, your website can be shared with an entire social network of potential prospects. Building a responsive website makes it easier to share this information, which extends the reach of your business with a minimal amount of effort on your part.

You become memorable

To be remembered, you must stand out. Your message is competing with dozens of competitors for the same customers. The ones which always come out on top are the sites which provide the best overall experiences for the user. From a perspective of mobile friendliness, you will need to make your site easy to navigate, have useful information that is easy to find, and have a layout and typography which suits your target demographic.

Do You Have a Mobile-Friendly Website for Your Business?

From a practical standpoint, designing a website to be mobile-friendly is often cheaper than developing an app for your business. You get the mobile presence your customers want, while your business takes advantage of the high levels of mobile traffic which are on the internet right now.

Opportunities are available right now.

If your website needs an upgrade to support mobile users, then make the investment. Otherwise, your competition will keep getting the business you deserve.

Responsive Website Design Tips

If you don’t want to hire a professional website designer and would prefer to go it alone then read on. we’ve highlighted some important and common issues that you need to consider in your website design.

Flexible layouts

Always make your layouts flexible if you want to position an element in a specific location or a certain size using CSS. Just remember that it may not show correctly on all devices. For example, if you set an image width to 600px it may look fine on a desktop or tablet computer but most smartphones widths are less than 500px. It’s best to set a percentage width as this is scalable on different devices. This means an image that is 50% width on a desktop is also 50% width on a mobile device.

CSS media queries

You should use the CSS3 @media rules in order to display or hide elements depending upon the user’s screen resolution. You can also set conditions in which to include or exclude any CSS property on your website. Combine these rules with a flexible layout approach you’re on track to create a fully mobile optimised website.

Responsive Website Buttons

When it comes to mobile devices and buttons size really does matter, there’s little value in having a small CTA button. It’s bad from the point of view of both user experience (UX) and conversion rate. A mobile phone user now expects a reputable website to accommodate for them. They don’t want to have to use the last few millimetres of their fingertip to click through your website! Make your buttons proportionally much bigger on a responsive website.

Your website’s font size

You should also consider the font size of your website. Too small and your website visitors are going to get tired of straining their eyes and hit the back button. Too large and it’ll look ugly and the user won’t be immersed in the content. You should test out different text sizes on a range of screen sizes in order to get the perfect size font.