Have you ever visited a website on your phone, only to find yourself zooming in because the text is too small, scrolling sideways because half the website just isn’t there, or struggling to click a button? Drives you mad doesn’t it What do you do? Well, I certainly just jump off that website and go to the next one in the search results. Hopefully that one will work better on mobile.
Now imagine if that’s how potential customers feel when they visit your small business website. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be losing out on a lot of business. Your competitors, with their lovely mobile-friendly websites will be happy to receive those visitors and convert them into customers.
Let’s talk about why making your website mobile-friendly is no longer optional.
1. Everyone searches on their phone
Think about how often you use your phone to look something up. Whether it’s finding a restaurant, checking store hours, or searching for a service, people turn to their mobile devices first. Around 60% of all traffic comes from mobile devices. Local search can be even higher, especially if you are in a different town or city and want to find local restaurants or shops, you are going to search on your mobile.
If your small business website isn’t optimised for mobile, you’re essentially turning away 2/3 of your potential customers. With some demographics and niches, those mobile users can be mich higher than 60%.
A mobile-friendly website ensures that visitors can easily navigate your site, read your content, and contact you without any hassle. Visitors should be able to buy or book with ease and be converted into paying customers. It’s about creating a seamless experience for anyone who visits your site, regardless of the device they’re using.
2. Google cares a lot about mobiles
Here’s something you might not know: Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher in search results.
Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking. This is called mobile-first indexing.
This is because Google wants to deliver the best user experience, and they know people prefer browsing on their phones. Remember the 60% stat above? So, if your website isn’t mobile-optimized, you’re not only losing visitors but also hurting your chances of ranking well on search engines.
If you improve your mobile responsiveness of your website then that means better SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which in turn can lead to more traffic, more leads, and ultimately more customers for your small business. I mean, who wouldn’t want that?
3. Better user experience equals higher conversions
Have you ever tried to fill out a contact form or make a purchase on a website that wasn’t mobile-friendly? It’s a nightmare. Tiny text that you can’t even expand, sometimes huge text that would only fit on a desktop. unclickable buttons, or buttons so big they fill the phone’s screen, and confusing or missing navigation that just drives people away. Studies show that 57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. That’s a huge, missed opportunity for your business.
A mobile-friendly website means your visitors can easily browse, fill out contact forms, call your business, or even make purchases without frustration. The easier you make it for people to engage with your business, the higher your chances of turning visitors into paying customers. Think about those people sitting on the sofa in the evening, browsing and buying on their phone. Those people are more likely to buy, or book from you with your mobile responsive website!
4. Mobile responsiveness builds trust
First impressions matter. This is also true of first impressions online. If someone visits your website on their phone and it looks outdated, cluttered, or hard to use, they’ll immediately question your business’s credibility. On the flip side, a modern, mobile-friendly site signals both professionalism and reliability but ultimately ease of doing business with you.
It’s about speed too. Massive images used on desktop optimised website can just takes ages to load on a mobile phone. If the website doesn’t load quickly on a mobile, or you can’t see the useful bit due to a massive image, then those visitors will jump ship ASAP!
When customers can easily access information, contact you, or make a purchase from their phones, it builds trust. And trust is one of the most important factors in turning visitors into loyal customers.
5. Boosts your competitive edge
Let’s face it, your competitors are probably already optimizing their websites for mobile users. If you’re not, you’re giving them a competitive advantage. Having a mobile-friendly website shows that you’re up-to-date, customer-focused, and serious about your business.
Most web developer or web designers now work on a mobile first design for websites. If we have most visitors now using mobile, and the fact that Google uses mobile-first in it’s ranking, it just makes sense. If they aren’t developing mobile-first, then look for a new web developer!
Imagine two similar businesses, one has a mobile-friendly website, and the other doesn’t. Which one do you think customers will choose? The answer is obvious. Making your website mobile-friendly helps you stay ahead of the competition and capture more leads.
6. It’s cost-effective and easy to do
The best part about optimising your website for mobile is that it’s not as complicated or expensive as you might think. Most modern website builders like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix offer mobile-friendly templates out of the box. They will do a lot of the ‘heavy building’ for you.
I use WordPress and Divi and the Divi builder will work very well with creating mobile websites straight from the get go. There are usually a few extra tweaks that I will do outside of the builder with tools or CSS just to make them even better. These might be small things like changing the order of columns on mobiles, just to make pages flow for a better user experience.
If your website was built a few years ago, a website audit or SEO audit can highlight were there are issues and pretty much give you a list of where you can make improvements. Some will be easy, but some may need a web developer,
Investing in a mobile-friendly website is a small cost compared to the huge return it brings in terms of more traffic, higher conversions, and increased revenue.
7. Future-proofs your business
The trend toward mobile usage isn’t slowing down and it’s continuing to grow. More people are shopping, booking services, and finding businesses through their phones. By making your website mobile-friendly now, you’re setting your business up for long-term success.
Remember the days of Covid? Those businesses that already had a website were able to adapt quickly and easily – even if it meant adding in a new service like bookings or delivery slot. The website was already there, collecting SEO juice, and being found by customer ready to convert.
In the future, as mobile technology advances, your website will already be in a strong position to adapt and keep attracting customers. Without that website being mobile-friendly you risk falling behind your competitors and losing valuable business.
8. Mobile-friendly boosts your SEO ranking
Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily looks at the mobile version of your website when determining your search ranking.
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it could significantly impact your visibility on search engines. By optimizing for mobile, you increase your chances of ranking higher and attracting more organic traffic.
Web developers and designers should now adopt a mobile-first approach when designing and building website. Desktop and mobile websites don’t have to be exactly the same but designing first for mobile and then adjusting for desktop should be the process now. If your web developer doesn’t do this, then find another one.
Why SEO is so important for your business goes into the reasons why you can’t ignore optimising your website for SEO, with mobile-friendliness being crucial to that, and also includes a few tips on how to make improvements to the SEO on your website.
9. Faster loading speed improves rankings
Website speed is a factor in Google search ranking. Mobile loading times are a factor in Google’s mobile first approach, so if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, and I’m particularly thinking about massive images, then it’s going to affect your Google ranking.
Mobile-friendly websites should load faster, and as we know, page speed is a crucial factor in Google’s ranking algorithm.
Plus, don’t forget the human factor here too. If your site takes too long to load on mobile, visitors will leave. This then has the effect of increasing your bounce rate and negatively impacting your SEO. Simply put, a mobile-optimized site with fast loading times keeps visitors engaged and improves your search engine rankings.
I have some tips in my blog, 3 Tips to Speed Up Your Website, on how you can improve the loading time of your website for desktop and mobile.
10. Creates a seamless experience for social media traffic
A very high proportion of people accessing social media do so from their phones, for example 81% of Facebook users only access the platform form their mobiles, and Facebook tends to have a slightly older demographic.
So, if people are looking at your social media and you have links to your website, either for information, bookings or sales, then they will expect it to be a good experience eon their mobile phone. Otherwise, we are back to them jumping ship and going elsewhere, and possibly further affecting your SEO ranking with increased bounce rates.
How can you check how mobile-friendly your website is?
Well, there are plenty of tools out there. Even the free tools will be able to give you a good idea of how good an experience it is on mobile.
But I have to say that one of the best ways, is to simply look at your website on your own mobile phone. Be honest, what does it look like? How quickly does it load? Does it fit nicely on the screen? Can you easily navigate? If you put yourself in your customer’s shoes, can you easily fulfil your business goals of book, buy or browse?
If in doubt, you can always book a thorough Website Audit with me or an even more detailed SEO Audit, depending on where you think the issues lie. This will give you the information yoe need to make the changes yourself or work with me to get your website all spic and span. You can even use to audit to give your existing web developer a ‘shopping list’ of improvements to your website.
If you want to book a Website Audit or have a Discovery Call to discuss your website, then just drop me a note.