When we walk around, sit in our workplaces, eat in restaurants, and just go on with our lives, sometimes we forget to actually look around. But if you stop for a second and open your eyes you’ll see it yourself: the majority of us are always in our phones. From there on arises the issue of responsive web design for websites trying to attract the majority of us: the ones who are always in their phones. But don’t worry, I’ll bring a lot of statistics for you to prove my point: your website won’t survive without a responsive web design.
If you try and search what responsive websites are Google will show you its definition: a very song sentence which meaning is quite hard to absorb. So let me be a bit more clear: there are desktop views, mobile views, and other views, right? Well, responsive websites adjust to the pixel-width of the screen you view it on and provide the same level of user experience on every device. What I’m trying to say, is that responsive websites adopt to the device you are accessing the material with.
Testing Your Mobile Friendliness
You know it yourself, that mobile friendly websites are websites created and designed in a way that they function on a phone or tablet. Make sure to not overlook the word “function”: mobile friendly websites work on any device, however they appear the same way on those devices as they appear on computer screens.
The problem that we bump in here is the user experience. Yeah you can make a mobile friendly website and it will function on phones and tablets, but will your user be satisfied? Zooming in and zooming out a couple of hundred times: are you having fun just yet?
The hard truth here is that no one will get through a website on their phone that doesn’t provide great user experience. After all, there are so many great websites in every industry will better UX that adapts to all devices.
Anyway, did you know about Google’s mobile-friendly test tool? What it does is basically test and see if your website is well designed for mobile users. So if you’re having trouble understanding if your site satisfies your visitors, this tool will come in handy. Just be sure that you’ll pass the test before you take it, because if you don’t it will hurt your Google search rankings.
The Facts That Make It All Clear
Without too many ramblings, let’s get to the facts.
It turns out that mobile traffic as a share of total global online traffic in 2017 was 52.64%. And the figures only increase and websites that are not responsive lose large portions of their audience.
Another statistic: mobile devices are projected to reach 79% of global internet use by the end of 2018. And that, my friends, is a huge number.
Moreover, in 2017 mobile eCommerce revenue accounted for 50% of total U.S. eCommerce revenue. With this in mind, you got to make sure your website’s responsive design provides great user experience, or else you’ll notice a drop in your online sales. After all, many retailers are already known for their great mobile shopping experiences: so it’s time to make improvements to catch up.
Aside from selling your products online and having satisfied customers, recommendations are also important: 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. And we all know how strong referrals and word of mouth marketing is, right?
Returning customers are more important for your business than new customers: if you didn’t know this, now you do. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this statistic: 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site on mobile if they had trouble accessing it and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead. Ouch, losing your customers to your competitors is like a knife in the heart. See how important responsive web design is?
And here’s that gives hope: 17% of small businesses with a website do not even have mobile friendly websites. Well, when I say hope, I mean an opportunity: create your website with a responsive web design and you can be one of the good ones.
The Mother of It All
According to Moz, “ In a mobile-only world, the relevance of local search is even higher.” So we’d say that the future is promising for early adopters. And the mother-of-it-all, Google, likes websites that care about the mobile experience. And a responsive web design will put you on Google’s good side.
But don’t just put all of your hopes and expectations on search rankings: remember about your mobile users. And when it comes to responsive web design flexibility is key: every user, every device and every situation is different.
So if you thought you could go away with your pretty looking website that works perfectly on desktop and only desktop, you were wrong. You simply need to get on it and work on having a responsive web design. And the rest will follow.
