Have you ever visited a website from your phone and it looked weird? Is the font too small? Are the images taking up the entire screen? Do you have to scroll 12 miles to the right to see the whole length of a sentence? Is your first thought, “They definitely didn’t optimize this site for mobile.” (Or is that just us nerdy digital marketers?)
It’s the WORST. And it’s probably happened to you. After all, 60% of all website traffic in the world takes place on smartphones, and 92% of all Internet users access websites via their phones.
So, when you think of those experiences, what do you typically do? Do you frustrate yourself by remaining on the page? Do you keep scrolling, zooming, and turning your phone this way to figure out what the heck you’re looking at?
Ooorrrr…. Do you go right back over to Google and find a better website?
Yeah, we thought so.
The thing is – that less-than-stellar website experience has a solution – it’s called Mobile Optimization.
What Is The Difference Between Mobile Optimization and Mobile
Responsiveness?
If you’re looking at information on mobile optimization, you’ve probably also heard about mobile responsiveness. While the two are similar in that they relate to the user experience on a mobile device, there is a crucial difference between them. Mobile responsiveness considers the size of the screen and makes adjustments based on that, while mobile optimization specifically looks at the type of device that’s being used and adjusts to device-specific parameters.
Mobile Optimization
To put it in the simplest terms: “mobile optimization” is the process of ensuring that your website visitors have just as good of an experience viewing your site on a mobile device (smartphones and tablets) as they do on a desktop computer or laptop. This means that a site’s entire layout and design may change depending on whether it’s being viewed on a desktop, phone, or tablet, and the three layouts may be distinctly different.
Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness means that the website recognizes that it’s being viewed on a smaller screen and scales the content accordingly. The layout will look pretty much exactly the same but will be easier to use since the website will know – for example – that buttons need to be adapted for touchscreen devices or that the screen may flip from portrait mode to landscape mode. But in terms of layout and design, nothing will change. It will just be smaller.
Why Is Mobile Optimization Important?
User Experience
The number one most important reason to optimize your website for mobile is that a good portion of our website traffic is mobile traffic. Depending on your industry, you may find that most of your traffic comes from mobile devices.
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’ll quickly lose prospective customers who can’t view the information or navigate the page quickly enough … and they’ll be headed straight into the arms of your competitors.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The second most important reason your website needs to be optimized (and this is a very close second – so close that it might just be a tie for first!) is that all of the major search engines consider mobile optimization when ranking websites. The search engines – like Google and Bing – know that the majority of web traffic is coming from mobile devices, so they want to ensure that searchers are getting the information they need in a format that’s easy for them to view and navigate.
If you and a competitor are going head to head for web domination, and their website is mobile optimized, and yours isn’t, they’re going to win because you aren’t actually on equal footing – they have a huge advantage.
Increased Conversions
When prospective customers land on your website, ready to make a purchase, it’s your job to ensure that it’s as simple for them as possible. If your website isn’t mobile-optimized and is cumbersome to use on a mobile device, you risk losing sales to customers who are shopping online via their phones or tablets. In fact, Pew reports that “91% of adults 18-49, 69% of adults 50 to 64, and 48% of those 65 and older” make purchases via their mobile devices. That’s a lot of sales to potentially miss out on.
If you’re ready to upgrade your website’s user experience and get serious about mobile optimization, let’s chat!
