4 Reasons You Need A Mobile Friendly Website

Squarespace Talk

Apr 3

Why do I need a mobile friendly website?

First of all, that's not something you should ask, you should just know—and if you don't know, you should be ashamed not to know and pretend to know.

Srsly though, it's because we're in 2019, and because you're ignoring roughly 55% of web users if you don't.

This blog post is inspired by this interesting article from Google. According to people familiar with the matter, 96% of consumers have encountered websites that were not optimized for mobile viewing, which in this day is just about 96% too many.

1. These Are The Stats:

61% of users said that if they didn't find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they'd quickly move on to another site.
79% of people who don't like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site.
50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly.

2. Google Likes Mobile

The truth is, they will punish you by lowering your ranking in their listings, if your site isn't mobile friendly.

On March 26, 2018, Google announced they’re rolling out their "Mobile-first" indexing of the web after years of experimentation and testing. According to their blog post, Mobile-first indexing means Google will use the mobile version of a web page “for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for,” and by “primarily mobile,” Google is referring to the fact that the majority of people who use Google search, do so from mobile devices.

In short, Google will start to look at mobile web pages to index the web, not desktop pages, and if you don't have a responsive (mobile friendly) website. GET ON IT. You can check to see if your website is mobile friendly, here.

3. It's Easier Than You Think to Get One

The big players in the internet game were thinking ahead years ago and have adjusted their platforms accordingly. Squarespace for instance, makes sure that every site built on their platform is responsive—yet another reason I personally like to build client websites with Squarespace. However, other platforms do this as well, either for free or for an additional fee. Local internet startup PageCloud allows you to style the mobile version of your site however you like, but it does take some extra effort to get it right. Regardless, you should always check out your website with Google's mobile friendly test.

If you've already got a website, open it up on your phone and show it to people. Are they squinting, holding the phone up to their face, or holding in vomit? These might be clues that you need to take action. Deal with it now while there's still time to get ahead of Mobile-first indexing, or you'll be scrambling to catch up later.

4. You Need to Understand Your Audience

People are on their phones—all the damn time. Here's a funny gif in case you don't believe me.

As it turns out, you can lose more than just sales with a bad mobile experience. Us millennials will be left feeling downright frustrated. We've got crippling student debt, no hope of ever entering the real estate market and like, tots maje relationship probs, but non-responsive websites are really just the final straw.

48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that's not mobile-friendly.
36% said they felt like they've wasted their time by visiting those sites.
52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company.
48% said that if a site didn't work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn't care about their business.