Fundbox customer and digital marketing expert Guillermo Ortiz is sharing his knowledge to help business owners improve their online presence and get more sales. Guillermo is an experienced SEO and PPC expert and the owner of Geek Powered Studios.
Today in Part 2 of our digital marketing crash course guest post series, Guillermo will focus on why mobile-friendly websites are so important, and how to use responsive design to improve your customer experience on the web. (Missed Part 1? Catch up here and learn how to earn more sales with email automation.)
Guillermo Ortiz, Founder of Geek Powered Studios
How important is it that your website be mobile-friendly and provide a great user experience right now?
In a word: VERY. Just check the staggering statistics: mobile devices account for 80% of global internet usage today. This means that the majority of the traffic to your website will almost definitely be mobile users. This also means that it’s more important than ever to provide your visitors with a great mobile web experience.
Having a mobile-optimized website for your business will also pay SEO dividends. Google will also rank your site based on the mobile version as part of its mobile first indexation.
If your site provides a lackluster mobile experience, then Google will probably rank your site lower in search results. All of the tips I give in this crash course revolve around sending traffic to your website, so make sure that you are providing the best user experience possible. Once you send people to your site, you want them to stay and find what they need there.
Using Responsive Web Design
One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is through the use of responsive web design.
What is responsive web design? Smashing Magazine defines it as, “the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.”
In other words, when you’re designing responsively, you’re designing a website to fit any device it’s rendered on, as opposed to the more old-fashioned practice of creating separate websites for desktop and mobile.
For SEO purposes, it’s important to note that Google has openly endorsed the responsive design approach. So, if you want to rank higher in online searches, this is a good thing to keep in mind.
In my experience, I’ve seen an incredible increase (in one case, even 100%+ increase) in mobile leads when we re-designed homepages to better cater to mobile users.
Here’s an example, before optimizing for mobile:
After re-designing with responsive design:
You can see they look quite different, and the “After” shot is much more friendly to users navigating from their smartphones.
The message is clear: a great mobile experience for users is incredibly important to your overall digital marketing strategy.
It doesn’t have to necessarily be a complete redesign, just be sure to have the important information readily available to a mobile user: Phone number, contact button, store hours etc. Take a look at your mobile homepage and ask yourself if it’s easy to use or find the information a potential user would be looking for.
Responsive Design Action Items
If you haven’t yet migrated your business website, now is the time. Here are some actions you can take right away to get the ball rolling and start moving your web presence toward a more user-friendly experience. If you do, you should be rewarded with happier customers, better search rankings, and more sales.
- Run a speed test
- Run a mobile friendly test
- Make sure there is a clear ‘call to action’ on mobile. (Examples of calls to action could be, “Call Now” or, “Get a FREE Quote!”)
- Go through your mobile site and experience it as a user. Notice what’s difficult to find or do and consider how to make it more pleasant, then work with your web developer or designer to implement those insights.
Catch up on Part 1 of the Digital Marketing Crash Course for business owners: Earn More Sales With Email Marketing Automation
