Go Mobile or Go Home - Why Should You Have a Mobile Friendly Website?

Smartphones are here to stay, and you must know that in today’s day and age everyone uses them for nearly every requirement. There is a mind-boggling statistic that has come up that “There are officially more mobile devices than there are people in the world”.

So, it is important not just to have a website but a responsive, mobile friendly one at that. In fact, Google’s latest algorithm brought about a change where websites do not fare so well if they are not mobile friendly. The site rankings would decrease in mobile search results of such website.

A while ago, the digital marketers were stressed out over this phenomenon which was dubbed as Mobilegeddon, because it was another way of acknowledging that users were predominantly visiting sites via their smartphones.

Mobiles have taken over as the primary device used by people to access the net and web designers and marketers should put similar thought into mobile development while creating or updating their websites. The simple conclusion of all of these is that due to increased smartphone activity, today’s marketers have to be aware, plugged in and ready to make changes and create a professional looking website that functions without a hitch across a larger range of mobile devices.

Let us look at various reasons that factor in the making of a mobile friendly website.

What is a Responsive/Mobile Friendly Website?

Responsive websites are designs that allow your developer to create websites with easy viewability on various sizes of devices. It is a type of design that reduces the effort involved when building websites. This approach makes use of layouts, images and CSS made flexible which then can be used on a website and will automatically detect the customer’s screen size and orientation. The layout will then automatically change and adjust itself according to the detected result.

There is another way to go, i.e. adaptive web design which means creating various websites for the various devices. This design would identify the device and adjust the website to provide a design most suitable for viewing. These designs are more complicated, both technically and design-wise, and so they tend to be more expensive.

Why Should I Build a Responsive Design?

A mobile responsive website will make it easier for the customers to reach your website and stay on it till they have achieved their desired results. Whether it is a blog or an e-commerce website, mobile friendliness ensures that not only has the user arrived at your website but also is engaged enough to complete the user cycle, i.e. read the articles or complete a purchase.

What Advantages Does a Mobile Friendly Website Have?

These days people have multiple stimuli thrown at them to get their attention. It led to a generation of users with extreme ADHD when it comes to browsing or exploring websites. Any page that even remotely irks the viewers, the mind will be swiftly closed and never visited again. To keep up with this world of excessive prompts, you need to create a space of which offers the users compelling yet sustainable content for them to be interested in what you have to say.

How do I Determine the Design For Such a Website?

First and foremost, do not create a separate mobile website. Unlike earlier times, it is now advised to use a responsive design rather than put your efforts into developing two different kinds of websites. A responsive design will help you create one website which will be viable on any screen, therefore, removes the risk of bias while culling content. One of the biggest problems that creators or developers face while creating a mobile friendly website is that they lose the objectivity while considering what content to keep and to cut.

This editing is a step removed in the creation of responsive designs. Additionally, when two websites are created with the same content, Google can penalise and thereby affect your site rankings. Therefore, once again emphasising the importance of having one design which is responsive.

How Do I Measure the Effectiveness of My Website?

The most important aspect of any website is to urge the user subtly to follow and complete the user cycle. Let’s take the example of an e-commerce website. Here we have first to identify the relevant factors and the critical tasks that are essential for the customer to complete a purchase. For example, you will try to have clear images with names of the products but not the description in the search results.

This identification of priority content and the execution of this content being displayed on the website requires research. Once you have designed your site keeping these points in mind, your site should then focus on the ease of use for your customer.

For example, if the customer needs to purchase more than one product from your e-commerce website, you should have clear paths for him/her to follow so that there is minimum fuss and zero frustration to complete the purchase. According to Media Post, “Mobile shoppers put ease of use foremost when it comes to mobile shopping sites, with 48% of respondents citing it as the most important quality of a mobile site they visit.”

What Are the Mistakes That I Can Avoid?

While creating a web design, there are various ways that a developer can approach the development. This in itself is a creative process which is found out by the creators themselves. But there needs to be a bigger picture that all stakeholders are on board with before designing the website.

Here are a few things that you can keep in mind while going ahead with a mobile friendly zone.

1. Remember Your End User

Often marketers sign off on a mobile friendly website just as a tick on their checklist to reach out to customers. In this process, they end up forgetting their target audience that uses mobile heavily. A decent mobile website will help the user to complete the cycle without any fuss whether it’s a blog, small business mobile websites, an e-commerce site or a social networking site. Every user will come to/stumble upon your website with a particular goal in mind.

While designing, you need to have a user persona that will perform this action purely on a mobile device and create the flow of design with this attribute in mind. That means a site that is optimised for the most common as well as the most critical tasks that the user will perform.

2. Work Smartly

We have already mentioned the importance and advantages of responsive design. There is another factor that this design offers to the developers-serving desktop and mobile on the same URL. While having multiple mobile site configurations is accepted, creating various URLs will just increase the amount of work and the effort to maintain, update and service your website, creating a potential for numerous technical problems. Google doesn’t emphasise on it but recommends configuring the design to have a responsive background.

3. Don’t Try to Reinvent the Wheel

Always do your research thoroughly before you can even brainstorm your mobile friendly design. There are numerous websites that you can take inspiration from regarding flow of content and the task cycle. Understand how a user would walk through the website and find out from the vast encyclopaedia that is the Internet which flow will suit your target the best. Look at competitors and even players from categories that might not be directly relevant to your outcome and try to pick out the optimum features that you should have.

Creating a design that is well thought out and has the inclusion of features that work for people who have a good mobile friendly website will result in a finished product. The research will help you filter out the fluff and keep the crux of your message while delivering a great experience to your users.

We hope that these tips will help you create a user-friendly mobile website with aplomb and also fit into your design budgets. For more information and a better understanding of the relevant service providers, like a mobile website development company, drop us a line about your requirements, and we will get back to you immediately. You can also join the network and become a part of our clients and receive news and updates to keep abreast of what’s happening in your field!