People used to get away with sloppy websites with poor mobile user experiences, but those days are long gone.
Look at some popular websites like Amazon, Facebook and YouTube. All of their in-house developers opted to get their websites optimized for mobile. However, would they have maintained their lead in the industry if they had chosen the archaic way? Most likely not.
With mobile devices increasingly dominating the digital landscape, mobile optimization is no longer a nice-to-have— it’s a must.
How many people do you see walking around clutching laptops? A few, depending on where you live. But how many people carry smartphones? Everyone.
Mobile optimization is not just about building fancy mobile sites but about making sure users enjoy using them. Mobile optimization is user-centric, from minimizing load times to designing an intuitive interface that doesn’t require unnecessary taps or swipes.
Your goal is to craft an experience with which mobile device users can easily engage.
As mobile continues to become increasingly influential in the digital world, a well-optimized experience has the potential to make or break brands.
Optimizing for mobile is a good starting point if you intend to thrive in today’s mobile-obsessed world. Unfortunately, though a tried-and-true industry strategy, mobile optimization remains somewhat mysterious to many entrepreneurs.
Thankfully, BME aims to address those questions and give relevant stats to change your mind! Keep reading to learn more about mobile optimization and why you need it.
What is Mobile Optimization?
The digital marketing realm is riddled with jargon that often discourages entrepreneurs from attempting to make the online transition. But we’re here to help you eliminate those reservations.
Mobile optimization is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the digital marketing industry, but what exactly does it mean?
Mobile optimization ensures that your website is optimized for the specific device your visitors use. It’s about creating a version of your platform that looks, feels, and works well on mobile devices. This enables users to interact with your business more efficiently on mobile or PC.
That means your website or app must render effectively and function correctly on all mobile devices of any maker. That includes:
- Mobile phones (iPhone or Android)
- Tablets (iPad or Android)
For example, visiting a website on a PC or through a phone does not change the content or user experience. Optimizing for mobile suggests every button functions as intended, the user interface remains engaging, and everything else is user-friendly.
Today, Google lists mobile optimization as a ranking factor in their search results. In other words, all search engine optimization practices you implement are only worthwhile with mobile-friendliness.
Businesses can reduce user frustration, increase engagement, and ultimately boost revenue by taking mobile optimization seriously. All of this happens while ensuring customers have an enjoyable mobile browsing experience.
At Business Marketing Engine, we are all about innovation. Part of this significant change is helping businesses innovate by embracing the call of mobile optimization.
If you need assistance transforming yours into a mobile-optimized website, call us.
Mobile-optimized Website vs. Mobile-friendly Website
Contrary to popular belief, mobile optimization and mobile-friendliness differ in many respects. This difference becomes painfully apparent once you compare the mobile experience between a mobile-optimized and a mobile-friendly website.
A mobile-friendly website is essentially a desktop version of a website shrunk down to fit mobile screens. Making an asset mobile-friendly simply means reorienting webpages and adjusting text fonts and positioning for a mobile user’s benefit. Meanwhile, the buttons, forms and other interactive elements remain the same.
On the other hand, mobile optimization takes mobile-friendliness to the next level. Mobile-optimized websites are built from the ground up to be user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing on mobile devices. Buttons, layouts, graphics and other interactive elements are tailor-made for mobile use, increasing the overall user experience.
For these reasons, experts recommend mobile optimization as a key element of any successful website. Not only does it provide a more enjoyable mobile experience, but it also helps boost search engine rankings. And, quite frankly, it makes your audience not hate you for a poorly optimized mobile website.
6 Mobile Optimization Statistics that are Important to Business Owners
“My audiences are all oldies-but-goodies, which means the prevalence of smartphone users is typically low. Investing in mobile optimization is a waste of time.”
Well, hold your horses for a little bit. Even boomers are sensible enough to use mobile phones if it means reaching out to their families more!
These statistics may change your mind if you decide whether to make the mobile optimization move. Check out six important key stats for optimizing your website for mobile:
Mobile devices generated 58.4% of global website traffic in 2022
If we are to deduce whether smartphones are more popular than desktops across the US, the answer is a clear yes. According to Statista, 58.4 percent of total global traffic in 2022 came from mobile devices.
This data varies greatly from 2015, when mobile traffic captured only 30-40 percent of traffic. It was 2017 when mobile hovered around the 50 percent mark, but since then has succeeded PC and risen steadily.
Mobile devices rose in popularity, becoming people’s partners for everyday transactions. Mobile devices offer flexibility that computers and other fixed platforms never could. And in a highly convenience-oriented world, a mobile device should serve us with more than texts and calls. This has been the primary motivation behind mobile optimization.
Research tells us that the primary online activities people use their mobile devices for are the following:
- Doing emails (83 percent)
- Surfing the internet (76 percent)
- Online shopping (71 percent)
- Checking their social media (67 percent)
- Listening to podcasts (66 percent)
More than three-quarters of people use their mobile devices to surf the web. With an increased demand for mobile information, you can be sure that non-optimized are unusable today.
46% of Americans spend 5 to 6 hours per day on their phones
Do you believe that every person looks for ways to make life easier for them?
After all, text messaging grew massively in popularity when it proved more convenient than sending direct mail. We divert our attention and spend time on things we find interesting, fun, and easy to do. That’s the reality of today’s attention to mobile devices and the need for mobile optimization.
Statista says nearly half of Americans spend around five to six hours using their mobile devices, not including work-related activities. Meanwhile, twenty-two percent dedicate three to four hours to their smartphones. Essentially, that is a whole day that could either be made simpler and better or more time-consuming and inefficient.
Mobile optimization has become one of the most important factors for successfully engaging the mobile audience. If not for optimizing websites for mobile, getting users to make the mobile switch would have been unimaginable.
Mobile optimization is a no-brainer if you want to win a mobile-oriented audience.
Mobile phones are used by 55.4% of internet users to make online purchases
Surfing the internet and social media are just some reasons people use smartphones. DataReportal says more than half of mobile users utilize their devices to make online purchases.
Clearly, as ecommerce continues to thrive, mobile ecommerce is also growing alongside it. In fact, one-third of US internet users made weekly purchases throughout 2021. And 49 percent have multiple shopping apps used for comparing prices between various stores.
Mobile visitors from big companies will expect a responsive and good buying experience from online stores. With this transition comes the websites of medium-sized to smaller ecommerce entities— including ours and yours. It’s only natural for mobile optimization to come along with this trend.
50% of smartphone users prefer to browse or shop on a mobile site rather than download mobile apps
Today, everything revolves around smartphones and online applications. But like every other software, apps take up valuable space in our phone or tablet’s memory. After all, you could have used that space for pictures or videos with your friends and family. It’s no wonder why ThinkWithGoogle found that half of all mobile users prefer to access mobile sites than download apps.
Unlike downloading apps, visiting online websites does not cost any storage space. That means people get the full benefits of an app without slowing down their device’s performance by adding applications.
But there’s a caveat: this is only possible when your website is optimized for mobile.
Think about it.
Why would anyone visit a website if the interface offers poor UI/UX? If people do not have access to your applications, they will likely skip your non-optimized mobile website. Worse, your market will choose to visit competitors because you need to pay more attention to mobile optimization.
Mobile website shopping increased by 48% during the COVID-19 pandemic
If you’re looking for the tipping point that granted mobile its overwhelming popularity, blame the pandemic. Mobile users were relatively lower compared to desktop users from 2017-2019. But the coronavirus era was a peculiar time of solitude and boredom. People did not have work, so they naturally gravitated to the closest thing that broke their monotony— phones.
From binge-watching TV shows to mobile shopping, people’s lives at the time revolved around mobile devices. During this lonesome period, Statista found that mobile website shopping spiked by 48 percent during the pandemic.
Still, the data shows the unrelenting trend of mobile shopping. The greatest recorded change was from the Middle East, with 89 percent, followed by Europe, with 62 percent. Believe it or not, North America captured the last position with only a 34 percent increase in mobile website shopping users.
With people turning to mobile websites, it was only natural that mobile optimization from developers followed.
48% of small businesses already have mobile apps, while 87% have intentions to develop one
A year’s worth of development revealed people’s inclination toward mobile over desktop usage, according to TopDesignFirms.
Their recent survey found that 48 percent of businesses already have mobile apps in 2022. This is a significant increase compared to their results from 2021, where only 32 percent had mobile applications. More importantly, a staggering 87 percent of businesses plan to launch their own apps eventually.
Undoubtedly, a mobile app revolutionizes people’s shopping experiences. However, many businesses may not have the resources, labor power and capacity to produce their applications. In these cases, a mobile app is a luxury when a well-optimized website on mobile will do the trick.
If an application is out of reach, mobile optimization is the next best thing to give a worthwhile customer experience.
Google’s Mobile-friendly Tool
Mobile optimization has made it into Google’s ranking factor for several years. In fact, Google shows results based on mobile optimization over desktop. That means Google will rank your website and show web results on desktops or laptops. However, if you have not implemented mobile optimization, they may not show your results on mobile devices.
Think of it this way.
Imagine your web page ranking #1 on organic search in desktops for a particular web query. But since it isn’t mobile-optimized, your website may not rank or even appear on mobile for the same web search.
Can you imagine the traffic you will lose without web optimization?
Thankfully, Google has introduced a wonderful solution to this predicament. Simply paste the URL into the search field and let Google do its magic. Using its mobile-friendly test tool, Google will determine whether or not your site is optimized for mobile.
If the result shows optimized, congratulations! You need high-quality, authoritative content to please the SEO gods and dominate search engine results.
But if you need help, let Business Marketing Engine take care of your website’s mobile optimization for you.
At BME, we have talented developers who can transform your website into a mobile-friendly haven. Plus, we can even give it a well-needed revamp if you want.
Business Marketing Engine is a full-service marketing agency that can assist you on all marketing fronts. Whether you’re looking for mobile optimization, high-quality SEO content or even social media management, we have you covered. Book a call.