Are you ready to take your website’s relationship with search engines to the next level? It is time to get serious and commit to making your site an experience users will love on mobile devices. The infatuation with users and their mobile devices is not a passing fling and the search engines are clearly taking that relationship very seriously. In fact, Google has plans to change the way they look at the internet to prioritize mobile responsive websites.
What does this all mean for visibility for your site on search engines? If your site delivers a poor user experience on mobile devices, you will struggle to not only retain your current site visitors, but to rank, resulting in fewer visitors. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers related to mobile web browsing to better understand this shift.
As of 2017, Google reports that 51-60% of searches worldwide come from a mobile device. 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site and 40% of mobile searches have local intent. What does that all add up to? There are plenty of fish in the sea and they are all on smartphones.
The best way to catch all those tech-savvy fish and turn them into customers is a website that is tailored to them. Creating this site requires a mobile focused redesign that goes above and beyond the bare minimum that is set out by Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test. This pass/fail test is a part of the new mobile first focus of Google. While it will give you a snapshot of how Google sees your site, users have come to expect more from the mobile web browsing experience.
You do not want your website to be stuck in the “Friend-ly Zone”, do you? Let’s break down what users, and now search engines, are looking for when they land on your site from their favorite mobile device.
Interactive Touch-Screen Friendly Experience
Creating a responsive and intuitive experience on mobile devices should be the first priority of any mobile optimization efforts. From there, it is important to consider the user’s reason for coming to the site and create mobile friendly conversion opportunities based on their intention. This could be done with easily clickable buttons on a page or banner notifications that are a part of most mobile user interfaces. Keep the limits of the device in mind when creating a way for users to navigate through pages and the content on the site. The priority of a mobile site should be to look and function as impressive as it does on desktop, if not more so.
All the Information Users Need, Quick
It is important to always tailor your content to answer questions of potential users. This is especially important on mobile because of the lack of screen real estate. Simplifying the content means that you will have to rely more heavily on heading structure to get the important information to the user as fast as possible. The average visitor to a website is more likely to skim the content, and this is especially true on mobile. Use this mobile optimization effort as opportunity to revisit site content and see if there is too much fluff. Focus on creating concise, authoritative content that answers searchers questions.
Feed the Hungry Eyes with Engaging Videos & Pictures
Beware of the wall of text! Creating a good mobile user experience is about creating a unique and enticing design that captures the attention of visitors. This is best done through photos and videos that are specifically designed to function well on mobile devices. Create media that works well on a variety of devices and is mindful of data usage. Make sure your images and videos are the best representation of your brand or business. To learn more about the benefits of professional photography on your site, see our previous blog post.
Keep them Coming Back & Converting
One final and critical step to designing a mobile site is creating conversion opportunities that make sense on mobile. The most important mobile conversion is that your phone number appears on the site and has click-to-call functionality. Your mobile visitors are most likely visiting the site via their smartphones; the faster you can make them dial your number, the better. If you have a physical location, another easy win — as far as mobile conversions are concerned— is to have a click for directions feature. This ensures that those same visitors who are visiting the site via smartphone can get to you with a click of a button. The path to conversion should be integral to the mobile site’s design but it should be balanced with the user’s expectation of the site.
It’s Not Too Late to Get Started
Let the professionals help you make a site that creates a mobile experience you and your customers will love! Here at NEXT! Ad Agency, the mobile experience is the priority to our SEO strategy as well as our web development and design philosophy. Contact our team today!
