Mobile search has exploded in recent years, with customers using smartphones and tablet devices every day to search for your business online. From Android to Apple, it’s clear that mobile devices are here to stay—and with their prominent presence, it’s paramount that business owners recognize the impact that mobile makes for their small business online.
If you have yet to recognize the power of mobile search, it’s time to go over a few numbers:
- According to Google, consumers are spending time researching products and services on their mobile devices
- 61% of mobile searches result in a phone call
- 18% of local searches convert to sales
- 1 in 3 searches on mobile occur before your customer physically visits your store
- 94% of smartphone owners conduct local search information on their phones
As you can see, these compelling statistics demonstrate how big of an impact on mobile search has made on local small business. From searching for addresses to dialing into your storefront, mobile search is undeniably a key component of your digital marketing strategy.
Google Favors Mobile Friendly Small Business Websites
If those statistics aren’t convincing enough, perhaps Google’s algorithm update from 2015 will shed some light. Dubbed as ‘Mobilegeddon’, Google released an update last spring that made a splash in the world of SEO. The purpose of the mobile update was to encourage business owners to offer a mobile-friendly version of their website, which translates to better user experience for their customers.
At first, the actual outcome of Mobilegeddon was not as drastic as predicted. Instead of Mobilegeddon resulting in sudden doom for small business websites, it was launched as a gradual rollout. Around 5% of websites were impacted when the algorithm was first rolled out, with 46% of websites experiencing a drop in search engine rankings after 2 months.
Does the Mobilegeddon concept still matter in 2018? In short, the answer is yes. Google is always focused at providing the best user experience possible, and this surely hasn’t changed for 2018. If you haven’t checked how your website is performing online over the last year, you should seriously consider checking your search engine ranking to see how Mobilegeddon impacted your small business website.
What Are The Benefits of a Mobile Friendly Website?
Aside from SEO advantages, responsive websites play a large role in how customers interact with your small business online. Outdated websites won’t display properly on mobile, which results in a lot of pinching and zooming for your customers. This inconvenience can send them clicking over to a competitor’s website without giving your company a second thought.
When you move forward with responsive web design in 2018, you’ll experience the following benefits:
Responsive Websites Help Customers Make Quick Decisions
Browsing a website on a mobile device is all about finding information that you need quickly in order to take action. If you’re a person wanting to order pizza while you’re out on the town, you aren’t going to want to dig through a company website in order to find a phone number. You want the information to be prominently displayed so you can click the number and dial right in.
Not only should customers be able to quickly call you on the spot, they’ll need to be able to navigate their way to your pizza shop. Displaying your address on your mobile site will allow your customers to click and navigate right to your shop using their mobile mapping system. With both of these features available to your customer, choosing your pizza shop over your competitor quickly becomes a no-brainer.
Responsive Websites Load Faster on Mobile Devices
It’s no secret that your customer’s attention span is dwindling away these days. To keep customers interested and engaged with your business via a mobile device, you must be able to present your information quickly and conveniently.
Responsive web design makes your website load much quicker on the spot, which will keep customers from clicking away to a competitor website. A shorter wait time can lead to an increase in phone calls or orders online.
Mobile Friendly Websites Can Help Increase Sales
The truth is that responsive web design is here to stay, and it’s necessary to keep customers interested in what your business has to offer. The idea behind responsive web design is to make it as easy as possible for customers to buy your products or contact you via a mobile device. The easy accessibility ultimately can lead to increase sales, making your business more profitable in the end.
Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?
If not, it’s time to make the switch and discover how it can improve your website’s online performance. When you need a boost in sales and SEO, consider responsive web design from Bigfoot Media.
Want to know how your business is doing online right now?
Use our FREE website scanning tool below to get your visibility score – Takes 45 seconds.
