For many years, tech analysts have predicted mobile usage to overtake PC usage. According to the 2015 GlobalWebIndex® Device Report, 80% of internet users own a smartphone. At only 11% less than the percentage of internet users who own a PC, there's little doubt that the Mobile-First Era is upon us.
Whether your company is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), more and more internet users are browsing your website using their smartphones or tablet. They're not just using their mobile devices to supplement their desktop browsing, they're browsing on mobile devices almost exclusively instead.
"[As a result, many businesses are beginning to] understand that not being present in results for people searching on their mobile device translates into missing out on a huge slice of the business opportunity."
- Smashing Magazine
Which is why digital marketing experts like Dan Bosomworth, Co-Founder and Creative & Strategy Director of First 10 are saying that "it's no longer a case of asking whether mobile marketing is important, we know it is!"
But it"s not just digital marketers advocating the importance of mobile responsive web design.
As recently as March 16, 2016, Google reaffirmed its search algorithms are "using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal' and "that beginning in May, [they'll] start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal.' Google and other search engines elevate mobile responsive websites in their search results because these sites display properly on multiple screen sizes and appeal to a broader range of internet users.
Having a website that's mobile responsive isn't just important, it's absolutely critical for your company to remain competitive in today's marketplace. Like the folks from The Proven Method perfectly put it, "if you're designing your website or other digital access point with only the traditional desktop experience in mind, you're going to be looking at a mass exodus of users sooner rather than later,' and therein lies the key benefit. Mobile responsive web design doesn't just make your company website look better or rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP), it enhances the overall user experience (UX) of your website.
Thesaurus.com may not list user experience as synonymous with success, but trust us on this one - it is.
Even if your website has all the information visitors are looking for, if they're unable to engage with your site because it's not mobile responsive, they're going to leave the site. But unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator, they won't be back, (not even for a franchise reboot).
In the words of our Foremost Media CEO, Jon Ballard, "more and more visitors are using devices with a wide variety of screen sizes to take care of business.' Sorry, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, but "takin' care of business' today takes more than just catching "the train by nine to get to work on time.'
Fortunately, Foremost Media has developed a free Responsive Test tool you can use to see if your company's website is mobile responsive. If it's not, contact us today to learn how we can help you create and implement a mobile responsive design for your website.