Last February, Google announced their plans to reward sites that gear themselves towards the growing mobile audience. A new addition to their search-ranking algorithms included giving websites that are mobile-friendly greater visibility in smartphone search results. Since then, many sites have been scrambling to get their websites up to speed for the April 21 implementation of this new “mobilegeddon”.
Now that the date has finally passed, many sites that still haven’t made the transition are now suffering on the mobile front because of it. It is for this reason that newer and smaller sites have it in their best interest to make the jump to the mobile platform as soon as possible. However, why wait? If you’re currently in the process of creating a site, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make it mobile ready to begin with?
We’ve compiled a short list of excellent reasons why you should hop on the mobile wagon right from the start.
Cater to the Growing Audience of Mobile Users
Studies have shown that the number of mobile internet users have grown over the past year and a half. For business owners especially, they can no longer say that the mobile market is something that can be neglected. With such a fast growing and emerging market, digital marketing has a vast and expansive playground that they can easily target their respective businesses with.
Easier Implementation
Websites that have been around for a long time are unlikely to be mobile-friendly. And having been built on an older platform, it may be harder for such a site to transition to one that is mobile responsive. Unfortunately, changing to a more mobile-friendly design isn’t always as simple as changing your website’s theme. There is still the migration process to consider, especially if you have a lot of sensitive data that needs transferred. In addition, each page on your site has to pass the mobile-friendly test. Compared to a site that is made from scratch, it’s a simple matter of choosing a theme that is already mobile responsive and then just build around it.
Improve User Experience for Your Audience
One thing that site owners fail to realize is that the behavior of mobile users is vastly different from those surfing websites using a desktop. Mobile users usually have a specific purpose when visiting a site using their smartphone. Because they are actively searching for your site or one within the same industry, they are prone to take more immediate action upon reaching your landing page. If they see something they like, they will most likely take action by calling you or setting an appointment. Inversely, if they have difficulty browsing through your site and get a bad user experience from it, then it’s very likely that they would rather take their business elsewhere than waste time trying to figure out where your contact page or company information is.
Mobile Friendly Websites Apply to All Platforms
When creating a mobile responsive site, you don’t really have to think about how it will look like on an iPhone versus an Android smartphone. The great thing about mobile-friendly sites is that they should work seamlessly across all platforms, especially if you build it on a robust system like HTML5. This way, you can give a consistent viewing experience to your users while easily being able to update your content.
Just remember, you have every reason to go mobile and reap the rewards that Google has to offer. There are many site themes out there that currently cater to the mobile audience. If you plan on making a new site, make sure to look for one that looks good to both mobile users and the search engines.
