The fact is if you aren't optimized for mobile you're ultimately losing sales. Research shows that 57 percent of mobile users will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load and 30 percent will abandon a purchase transaction if the shopping cart isn't optimized for mobile devices.
Considering how important a website can be for any small business it seems only natural to take the extra care to ensure the website is mobile friendly. It's amazing to me how so many websites are still not optimized for a mobile experience.
Here are five reasons small businesses must have a mobile optimized website:
1. Mobile Users are Different
Mobile users have different objectives than desktop users and typically this means they want information in quick, easily digestible bites. Customers report that their mobile purchases are often impulse buys and some statistics show that mobile users spend more money per purchase than customers do on desktop websites.
This underscores the importance of optimizing your mobile experience to match a visitor's needs and behaviors in the context of how they will most likely be browsing your website. By making the path to purchase or enquiry simple and intuitive you'll align more precisely with mobile users who need information rapidly to make decisions on the fly.
2. Mobile Gets Traffic
With one-quarter of global web searches conducted on a mobile device by over a billion users worldwide, mobile websites are just as important, if not more so, than desktop versions. Multiple sources report that smartphone users are engaging with mobile websites and apps while watching TV, commuting to work, and simultaneously while using a computer.
As Google made clear with last year's Hummingbird update the future of search is mobile and websites that aren't usable on handheld devices will see their search rank suffer for it.
3. Better Brand Engagement
People like your brand more when you offer a satisfying mobile experience and they're more likely to return to your website later on a desktop. 90 percent of people report moving between devices, or "multi-screening", to accomplish a task. When your mobile experience is optimized for functionality and consistency it fosters trust and affinity with users.
On the other hand if your mobile website is difficult to navigate customers are more likely to go to the competition than to visit you on a desktop computer. If you can't provide what they need when they need it you will have lost the opportunity for the sale and risk losing a customer permanently to a competitor.
4. Increased Conversions
Desktop websites in mobile browsers are ineffective at converting visitors into buyers. Calls to action (CTAs) are often obscured, links are difficult to click and contact pages are buried in awkward menus. Mobile shoppers have little patience for an unwieldy website and one-third of them will leave a transaction if the site isn't optimized for mobile.
To make the most of mobile, CTAs should be clear and easy to click and contact information should be one of the first things visitors see. 80 percent of shoppers admit that mobile purchases are impulse-driven and that they're more likely to purchase from and interact with a brand that offers an engaging mobile experience.
5. Reduce Your Bounce Rate
Content that looks great on a desktop might be unreadable on a mobile device. Visitors won't stay on your site if they have to pinch and zoom or squint at illegible type, or worse yet if it runs flash or anything that requires add-ons to display in a browser. If your website isn't optimized professionally for mobile your bounce rate on mobile devices is going to be extremely high. By providing mobile visitors with an appropriate and intuitive user experience you will obviously engage visitors longer and drive more of them to purchase or enquire.
Mobile Health Check: Pick up your smartphone and go to your website. Ask yourself these questions:
•Does it load in less than three seconds?
•Does it draw your eye to your key selling points or message?
•Is the content easy to read?
•Is it easy to navigate?
•Is it easy to recognize and activate the call to action?
•Does it provide a good user experience?
•Is it a website you would spend time if it was not your own?
If you mostly answered "no", then it's time to optimize your mobile site and capture the traffic and sales you've been missing out on. In our definitive report, The 11 Essentials of a Successful Website Design, mobile optimization has been ranked as number 8.