Why Your Website Must be Mobile Responsive NOW

So you know how Google says you should do something and you wait and you wait and you don’t do it. You don’t do it thinking that it doesn’t mean you need it or you probably have plenty of time to make the change, and maybe you do, or did, but since you never did it, well, that time is now.  You lost yet?

Oh, and fyi – this is not new info – this should have been done, years ago – so if you haven’t, it is way past overdue!

Heck, I wrote “Get Your Mobile in Check” back in 2015 talking about the numbers of mobile v desktop making the switch over and then in 2017 about mobile-indexing coming… but alas, you still didn’t listen? Listen now, please!

Your Website MUST be Mobile Responsive

Mobile traffic, back in the day, used to account for approximately 30% site traffic but these days, it’s completely the opposite.  For example, per Statista, mobile share of organic (not all traffic, fyi) visits in the US from 2013 to the middle of 2019 increased from 25% to just under 60%.  Reminder, this is only organic traffic, so just imagine if the increase in organic traffic leaped by 35%, you can easily imagine that direct, social traffic (duh right) and even paid traffic increased by leaps and bounds as well!

Find more statistics at Statista

I could go into further details of how much time folks spend on their phone, but just the mere numbers of organic search should be clear, more folks are using their mobile phones for more and more stuff and heck, I would even venture to guess that many don’t even own a computer, compared to the opposite 6-10 years ago!

What exactly is a ‘mobile responsive’ website

Let me back up for a minute to explain “mobile responsive”.  Typically this means that the website will adjust automatically to the screen/device of the device that is on the site. Because as you know a monitor has various sizes, as do different tablets and of course different mobile devices such as the awesome Droids and the eh iProblems, I mean iPhones. #TeamDroid

Further, you should know that some websites choose to have a completely different website on desktop then mobile and that might be because they had such a robust website built (old school) and ended up creating a mobile version instead of starting over with a new website completely.

Most current themes for WordPress, and likely other website builders and the life, are already on top of things and have made sure that all current themes are already mobile responsive, however, when you make changes to your website, be sure the changes extend to your mobile version and/or be sure they look as good on both. Sizing, fonts, padding and etc are some things to consider. If you aren’t sure, contact your website developer or contact me and I’ll see if I can help – it usually depends upon what platform you are using for your site.

Is your website mobile friendly?

Just for fun, head over to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test site, put your website url in there and see what it spits out. (This is per page so you want to see more pages, put them in there)   I mean, of course you could go to your mobile device and put it in there to see what it looks like but this is a great tool and gives some insight as well.

Just because you can see it doesn’t mean it’s mobile

Let me also say, that just because you can see your website on your phone, doesn’t mean it is mobile friendly. Consider this:

• do you have to squint to see the words?
• do you have to pinch your screen to make it bigger?
• when you can see the text, do you have to slide the screen to see the rest of the site, to the left and right?

The point here is that your site, when looking on mobile, should have large enough font to read without trouble, it’s likely spaced out more and you’ll have to scroll (down) to see more of your site (so less of your site will be above the fold) and you’ll likely see  ≡ (three horizontal lines) instead of your navigation bar which allows for more of your content above the fold (visible without scrolling down).

Google is using mobile first index

This isn’t news either and doesn’t apply to only Google but Google mentioned back in March 2018 that they were rolling out mobile-first indexing.  Granted, this didn’t happen over night but think, by now, it’s putting mobile versions of sites out over the desktop version.

Why? Well, Google is running a business as well and its job is to provide the best results for any given search. So, considering the above statistics, that more folks are searching on mobile over desktop, that’s clear that having the best response in the version necessary is, well, necessary.

Because again, remember, consumers want their info, they want it fast, they want to be able to understand it and get what they want, when they want it and easily.  So, if your website sucks, it isn’t mobile, it’s too busy, it’s hard to follow, etc etc, then they will “bounce” and be back into the search box looking for a better version of what they wanted.

Ultimately, Google is trying to help us (shockingly) by indexing and showing mobile responsive sites first since, well, most folks are searching on mobile. The better it looks on mobile, for the consumer, the better for us. Well, that is as long as you are in the top few pages of the search results for that given phrase.

If you need some help with your search engine optimization so that you have better chances being found in search engine results, where the consumers are searching and where your competitors are, then contact me – that’s what I do!  If you think that because your website developer said your website is optimized when he/she built it – you may want to check this blog out because there is a difference!

Bottom Line – TL;DR

Your website must be mobile friendly and/or mobile responsive. You want your consumers to be happy and since more people are using their phones for things (search, shopping, reviews, etc) than desktop, you need to make sure they can find your website, see your website and find what they need on your website, easily. Lastly, Google is indexing/crawling mobile websites first and likely showing the mobile responsive versions on search over desktop view, so you need to be sure yours has both. Remember that your consumers need this and your competitors are doing this, so you need to as well.

Should you need help with your website in that you aren’t sure yours is mobile, or you need a face lift or website redesign, contact me and I look forward to helping you and your business be more visible, user friendly, consumer friendly and search engine friendly.

~Kristen