Mobile Web Design: Reformat Your Thinking
We hate to be so harsh, but many people are still missing the point on the importance of having a website tailored for mobile devices. So we’ll be blunt. You must have a website that fits mobile, and what’s more, if you want to follow best practice, a “mobile-responsive” website. Not if; not when; no buts. You must have one now, because your search engine exposure on mobile devices now also depends on whether your
We hate to be so harsh, but many people are still missing the point on the importance of having a website tailored for mobile devices.
So we’ll be blunt. You must have a website that fits mobile, and what’s more, if you want to follow best practice, a “mobile-responsive” website. Not if; not when; no buts. You must have one now, because your search engine exposure on mobile devices now also depends on whether your site fits the mobile.
That’s right, your Google rank on a mobile is going to be lower if you don’t have a mobile website design. Google is smart enough to know, and it will give a higher ranking to properly configured in front of your desktop-only site.
Think about it. For Google to suggest the most relevant list of sites to a user, it also needs to know they are in a legible format. So if your website is only legible on a desktop computer, and not reformatted for mobile, then Google is not doing its job properly by showing your site ahead of another site that is easier to read. And that means even if your content is more relevant than another site’s – what use is it if it’s illegible?
Google’s preferred methodology is to use mobile-responsive formats (which is industry best practice and Kook has been building sites this way for more than a year) but there are a couple of other options as well.
OK so we know how Google wants it done, but why else would you have a mobile web design? Well how about your conversion rate to a sale or inquiry? Is a potential customer going to zoom and scroll and zoom and scroll through 20 of your products or are they going to just find a site that’s easier to operate and buy from them?
Most of our clients’ sites these days are well above 25% mobile traffic, some are very close to 50%. If you don’t have a site that fits to mobile devices you are making it more difficult than it needs to be for a quarter to a half of your target audience. Google knows it, and they will rank the sites that are more friendly to mobile users higher than those that aren’t.
What's next, Kook?
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