On the bus, train, metro, airplane or ferry…Whichever mode of transportation you use for your daily commute, you have probably noticed the number of people using their mobile phones for web browsing. The traffic from mobile web browsing has already surpassed desktop browsing, and the trend keeps growing. And as web browsing from mobile phones increases, online shopping from mobile phones increase as well. If your company still haven’t adapted to this growing trend of consumer behavior, it is guaranteed that you are missing out on customers.

More and more people use their mobile devices for online shopping. According to a survey done by TNS Gallup, Norwegian consumers shopped for almost 10 billion NOK in Norwegian online stores in 2015. It would be wise to develop a marketing strategy for mobile devices. But before you start running ads and campaigns, you have to make sure your website responds to your customer’s device, whether it is a mobile phone, tablet or desktop.

Not sure if your website has a responsive design? Run a test here.

A responsive website is one that responds and works well on all types of screen sizes. The layout changes depending on the user’s device. For example, if you are on a mobile phone typical changes are text and image size, and the use of single column display (instead of multiple). The layout is designed to give the user a complete overview of the website with no need to zoom in and out to view the content. This increase user experience, which is crucial for websites offering products and services. For many industries, statistics show that up to 50% of customers will go to a competitor’s website if they land on a website not suitable for their device.

Key features of a mobile-friendly website:

• Readable text and content – zooming not required
• Condensed navigation – no need for horizontal scrolling
• Clickable elements have sufficient space between them – easy to click correct item
• Suitable software – don’t use software which doesn’t work well, e.g. Flash

SEO Is Important

Google is working hard to ensure their customers receive the most relevant and best answers to their search result. User experience is an important factor so Google will prioritize this in their results. In other words, if your website is not responsive, you will be “penalized”. But if you already have made the efforts to adapt to your user’s needs, Google will reward you with a better ranking. In May 2016, Google made an update which emphasized the importance of being mobile friendly even more.

More Traffic from Mobile Phones or Desktops?

For many businesses in the consumer market, you can see that web traffic from mobile devices is a lot higher than desktop browsing. For B2B companies, on the other hand, the device vs desktop traffic is evener. This is a generalization and does not necessarily apply to your company. It will depend on the product you sell, your target market and where your company is located. The only way to find out which devices your customer’s use is by looking at the statistics for your website. If you don’t have access to this information through your website, Google Analytics is a great tool.

Google Analytics is free and gives you a detailed overview of website traffic and user data. Some of the information you can see is how many visitors you have per month, what web browser is used, geographical data, and most importantly (at least in this context), what devices generates the most traffic to your website.

Mobile First Strategy?

No matter what your results are, you should still have a responsive design for your website. But if your website has more traffic from mobile devices, you should consider a “mobile first strategy”. With this strategy, you prioritize your digital marketing towards the mobile device user and develop your website accordingly. Traditionally, websites have been developed for desktops and then adapted for a mobile screen, but with a mobile-first strategy, it’s the other way around. A more linear layout, simplistic design, fewer columns, and larger text size.

Converting to Responsive Design

Changing your static website to a dynamic one is usually an uncomplicated process. If your website is built with open solutions like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla it shouldn’t be a problem at all. In some cases, though, a website can be restricted to a provider’s publishing tools. If these don’t support a responsive design it can take a lot of time and resources to convert a website into an open solution.

Get in touch with us to find out more about mobile-friendly and responsive websites.