Mobile Is The New Desktop
Smartphone and tablet users worldwide have grown drastically in the past few years and this can be attributed to cheaper mobile devices and a wide variety of data plans that usually come with free handset. Singapore, home of one of the fastest Internet connections in the world, has more than 80% of its population using the Internet on a daily basis. The country also has a 149% mobile penetration rate in Q1 of 2016 according to data.gov.sg. From a business standpoint, these numbers mean that you can actually reach your audience online and opens up a lot of opportunities for either expansion or growth.
It is also no secret that search engines, particularly Google, favor websites that are mobile-friendly. In 2015, Google released Mobilegeddon – an update that is designed to give boost to mobile-friendly websites on its search results. The Big G continuous to put emphasis on mobile-friendly websites by increasing its effect into its ranking algorithm. In fact, Gary Illyes of Google shared last October 13 at Pubcon that they’re planning to create a separate index for mobile search, and will become its primary database moving forward. Early this month, Google announced through its blog that they’ve begun doing some experiments in creating their mobile-first index. These recent changes seem to signal a passing of torch, well sort of, from desktop to mobile.
What Does This Mean To Your Business?
With the enormous shift in consumer behavior and change in the SEO landscape, it’s not enough that you just have a website that looks beautiful on PCs. It is imperative that your website is also optimized for other devices such as smartphones and tablets. Nowadays, the decision-making of consumers lies on what they see on their phones. Mobile search results are already an integral part of consumer behavior before we even know it. It influences shoppers by helping them compare choices, research products, and read reviews before making any purchase online — or even offline.
Boost Engagement To Generate Leads
The key to success is serving the right content to your customers using the right platform with powerful business-generating tools available at their fingertips. Unlike desktop websites, the mobile version should use texts in the right size, images that are not stretched, and buttons that are thumb-friendly. Mobile optimization also aims to boost user engagement as 57% of users would not recommend a website they had trouble accessing through their devices. To make things worse, 34% of the users will visit a competitor website after the bad experience. In today’s world, it’s vital for businesses to have a strong mobile presence to better capitalize on the opportunities that are out in the open.
Conclusion
The importance of your website being mobile-friendly is now essential as ever. With the current trends and drastic shift in consumer behavior, it becomes imperative for business owners to make sure that their online presence stay strong regardless of which device their audience uses. So what are you waiting for? Make sure your website provides hassle-free mobile experience to your existing and future customers – NOW!
