Are you worried about your site being mobile? Be honest. If you’re not, you should be! Anyone who owns a website should be concerned about how the site appears on mobile devices. If you’ve ever reviewed your website analytics, I’m sure you’ll see that the largest amount of views come from mobile visitors. Reuters reports 75% of Internet use in 2017 will be from mobile devices. That’s HUGE!
So what should you be concerned about specifically? While there are many things that make a great mobile site, I want to hit on a few main areas that I think everyone should be thinking about. Fixing these key areas will give you the biggest “bang for your buck,” and it will make sure your site isn’t being passed over by visitors or Google, due to old practices.
How Does Your Website Fare?
Is your site hard to navigate, unappealing, or slow to load on a mobile device? According to Google, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site if they had trouble accessing it, and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead (MicKinsey & Company). We’ve been educating clients about this for years. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly (fast enough, well-designed, or easy-to-navigate), visitors will leave, and on the flip side, having a great mobile website can help you gain visitors who can then become clients.
Can People Find Your Website in Search Engines?
Another thing to consider with your site is search engine optimization (SEO). Perhaps your site is already mobile/user-friendly, but we all know for new clients to find your website, it needs to be ranking well in search engines. On April 21, 2015, Google released a new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm. Mobilegeddon (Yes, there’s actually a term for it because of what a big deal it is!) has been upon us for over a year now, and Google has announced that in the next few months, they will be releasing a separate mobile search index.
Like all things Google, they aren’t giving anyone the exact ins and outs of how it will work, but they have stated that the new mobile index will be their PRIMARY index. No matter what your level of understanding is, your takeaway from this should be that they are going to have an even greater focus on mobile websites. While companion websites, mobile apps, etc. have been some companies’ solutions to making websites mobile-friendly, they’re usually the wrong answer for small businesses. Google has given us small tools to help verify if websites are considered mobile-friendly.
Does YOUR Site Need Help?
Still unsure if your website is considered mobile-friendly? Need a better breakdown of what a mobile index is or what this means to you? Do you feel confused or overwhelmed about the details involved in having a mobile-friendly website, and you prefer to spend your time practicing great medicine instead? Give us a shout! At InTouch Practice Communications, we can help you break down the difference between a mobile-friendly and non-mobile-friendly website. We can also show you how you can easily shift into having a mobile-friendly Web presence while incorporating SEO. Let us conduct a FREE website analysis today. Give us a call!