Why Not Having a Mobile Optimized Website is Benching Your Company

Two billion – that’s the number of mobile Internet users worldwide; a number forecasted to grow by 2% each year through 2020 (according to a report released by the International Data Corporation). With staggering facts like these to consider, neglecting to make your website as mobile-friendly as possible is a huge tactical error. Below are three key reasons why failing to take this all-important step is keeping your company on the bench.

1. You’re turning away customers.

Mobile advertising network InMobi recently revealed that more than 60% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices. This means that in any given month, more than half of your website visitors will have arrived on your site by way of a smartphone or other handheld device.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing, you’re essentially alienating a large percentage of the potential leads, clients or customers that are trying to come your way! How long do you think a brick-and-mortar business would last if they turned away every other customer that came through the door? So it is with your website–if it can’t be properly viewed on a mobile device, you’re basically turning that visitor away from your virtual door.

2. Your search engine rankings are suffering.

Most of us are familiar with “Mobilegeddon,” the now-infamous algorithm adjustment that Google introduced back in April of 2015 in order to begin prioritizing mobile-friendly websites in their search results. Heralded as a game-changer by SEO experts the world over, Mobilegeddon essentially represented an admission by Google that the world of search has been dramatically altered by the emergence of mobile Internet usage.

As a result of this sweeping change, it’s now more difficult for websites to rank well in search results if they’re not responsive or compatible with mobile devices. If you’ve been working hard to earn or maintain a solid position in search engine results, failing to optimize your website for mobile is thwarting your efforts.

3. People are leaving your site because user experience is a hassle.

Today’s Internet user expects a website to be fast, efficient, and easy to navigate. While a non-mobile-optimized website might still be technically viewable by a mobile device, users have to deal with slow page load times, jumbled page elements, and a generally poor experience overall. This leads to high bounce rates, which means you have very few visitors sticking around for more than a handful of seconds.

If you’re not sure how responsive or mobile-friendly your website is, test your website on Google’s new mobile-friendly test page to get a feel for what needs to be changed. Then, don’t sit the bench during one of the most exciting times in the world of digital marketing; talk to 2060 Digital – a Premier Google Partner – about optimizing your website for mobile and get in the game!