Updated on 27/06/24
When was the last time you grabbed your phone to look up the answer to a question? You probably weren’t going to do so on your laptop, or turn on your aging desktop computer do so. Smartphones and mobile devices have turned into portals for entertainment, data, and social connection, all at the tips of our fingers.
In fact, according to a report from Hitwise, around 60% of all online searches are now performed on mobile devices. This is even more when it comes to certain industries, reaching 72% for the food and drink sectors.
With this in mind, if a website isn’t optimised for mobile use, its content is invisible to an incredibly large audience, which is bad for businesses trying to increase brand awareness.
This raises the question, what is mobile optimisation, and why is mobile optimisation important to a business?
Essentially, mobile optimisation is important to a business for a whole range of reasons: it provides a better user experience, it increases conversion rates, and boosts search engine rankings, just to name a few.
But before we dive into why your business should have a mobile-optimised website, let’s make sure we fully understand what it means exactly.
What is Mobile Optimisation?
In short – mobile optimisation is the process of optimising a website to provide optimal user experience, ensuring that it displays correctly and performs well on all mobile devices. These devices include smartphones, tablets and iPads, and since they have significantly smaller screens than a typical computer or laptop, mobile optimisation ensures that the user can visit a website with no visual or functional issues.
So, why is mobile optimisation important to a business? Let’s dive in.
1. It Provides a Better User Experience
Ensuring your customers/potential customers have a positive and seamless user experience is crucial, both on mobile and PC devices. If a website takes a while to load each page, is tricky to navigate or simply visually unappealing, then chances are the user won’t stay on your site for long.
In fact, a study by Google found that 53% of mobile visitors are likely to leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, and mobile sites that load in 5 seconds or less have 35% lower bounce rates. Additional research shows that 21% of visitors will leave an app or website after only one use due to poor design and visual issues.
This shows just how important it is for every website to have a mobile-friendly design, responsive and clear layouts, and optimised content so that users can easily read and navigate the site.
Having a well mobile-optimised presence is therefore no longer a luxury but a necessity, especially in today’s digital world with so much competition.
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2. It Increases Conversion Rates
A well mobile-optimised website will convince visitors to stay on your site for longer, and the more time they spend on your website, the more likely they are to convert into paying customers, submit a call-to-action form or return again at a later date.
This is especially the case with e-commerce websites, as a streamlined, smooth checkout process is crucial. By simplifying the process, minimising the number of steps, and implementing mobile-friendly payment options such as mobile wallets or one-click Apple payments, barriers are removed and cart abandonment rates reduce as a result.
Mobile optimisation also increases conversion rates by conveying professionalism to users. Think about it like this, if your website isn’t very visually appealing, hard to read, poorly designed and hard to navigate, visitors are unlikely to trust your business and therefore not proceed to purchase your product/service. However, if you nail all of these things, visitors are likely to trust your brand and see it as a credible website.
Having a blog page will also help visitors associate your website with trust and credibility as it shows you’re full of industry knowledge and expertise, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
3. It Will Boost Search Engine Rankings & Local Targeting
Interestingly, mobile optimisation wouldn’t have affected regular SEO a few years ago. But due to how many mobile internet users there are now (4.32 billion in fact), search engines have begun factoring a website’s mobile optimisation into their regular SEO. So, in short, businesses that have mobile-optimised websites are more likely to rank higher in mobile search results.
Mobile optimisation is also crucial for businesses with a local focus, such as restaurants, retail shops, cafes, or service providers that rely on local customers, such as tutors or hairdressers. This is because many mobile internet users have local intent, and by optimising a website for local SEO, the business can increase their chances of appearing in local search results and attract local customers who are searching on-the-go on their mobile devices.
4. Gives Businesses a Competitive Advantage
Businesses need to be different from their competitors to succeed in the modern world. Investing in mobile optimisation helps companies gain an advantage over competitors who haven’t accepted the smartphone-first digital world. Your website, when compared to others, looks like the epitome of accessibility and user-friendliness, drawing in visitors to improve your brand conversion chances.
In addition to appearances, mobile optimisation shows that your business understands how technology is evolving and is keeping up with modern standards. This demonstrates your dedication to providing an efficient user experience for most users who consume information on their mobiles.
When looking at your business against competitors, companies with mobile-optimised websites look like leaders in their industry. This draws in tech-savvy customers who to make purchases from companies that adapt to change.
How to Optimise a Website for Mobile
So, we know that mobile optimisation is crucial for a business, but how do we go about doing it?
If you’re wondering how to optimise a website for mobile, here are 6 ways in which you can do so:
- Reduce the load time – Page load speed is actually a part of Core Web Vitals and a huge ranking factor for Google. There may be a number of things holding your speed back, but one of the main culprits is oversized images. Ideally, you shouldn’t be including any images on your site that are 100 KB or above, so make sure that all current and future images are within this size.
- Easy-to-read layout – Generally speaking, you should opt for a minimal and clean website design. Optimise the layout with large fonts, well-spaced paragraphs, and easily tappable features. Ensure that the navigation is clear, concise, and easily accessible from page to page (especially the checkout page).
- Ensure all forms are mobile-friendly – If your website includes forms, try and minimise the number of fields and simplify the input process for the user. Include mobile-friendly input methods, such as dropdown menus and checkboxes, to make it easier for users to give information.
- Responsive design for users – By this we mean, implement a responsive design to ensure that your website automatically adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. For example, while desktop versions of websites often have a top bar, mobile versions often have a more compressed “hamburger” menu.
For more ways you can optimise your site for mobile, check out this helpful article.
And there we have it! We hope this has answered why is mobile optimisation important to a business, as well as how to optimise a website for mobile. That being said, if you feel like you need some additional help, look no further.
At Lumen SEO, we can take care of your whole SEO strategy, including keyword research, link building and technical SEO. Learn more about what an SEO agency, like ours, does here.
If you like the sound of working with us, we offer free, no obligation SEO audits on business websites. To claim yours, simply pop an email to aled@lumenseo.co.uk with your website URL and we will send it over to you the very same day.
Written by Kate, for Lumen SEO.
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