Market research has been indicating for quite some time that users are increasingly accessing the internet from their smartphones and tablets (aka mobile devices) rather than desktop computers.
Statistics on the communications industry taken from Ofcom research publications in fact show 66% mobile traffic in the first quarter of 2016, leaving just 34% for the larger desktop screens.
And while some industries have quickly adapted to the increasing need of mobile optimised websites, many are still not aware that this is an important issue which can affect performance of their businesses and cause an opportunity cost hence losing business. If your organisation intends to acquire dominant position within the marketspace then a great mobile-ready website is a must.
What is a mobile optimised website?
A mobile optimised website also known as mobile-friendly website or responsive website (type of technology used) is a website that has been designed to display properly on mobile devices with smaller screens such as iPhones, Android phones or tablets.
Websites that have been historically designed for desktop screens only, do not render well on mobile devices with smaller displays and often show the content of the page very small and hard to read. Mobile optimised websites, on the other hand, respond/adapt to the size of the screen (hence responsive/adaptive technology) and provide features such as mobile menu and correctly formatted content.
What is a bespoke or custom-made website?
As an up-to-date online presence has become essential for businesses these days, there are generally speaking two options available when it comes to enhancing your current website or creating a brand new one. You can either buy a pre-built template design used by hundreds of others or have a bespoke website built around your business needs. And although custom-made website will see you spending bigger budget, the return on investment is often incomparable with pre-built templates.
Here are top 3 reasons why bespoke mobile website perform better than templates
1. Mobile traffic is now higher than desktop and will continue to rise
As it has been already pointed out above in this article, recent research has shown that mobile traffic have overtaken desktop traffic for the first time in 2016. More than half of the visitors used a mobile device rather than a desktop computer to browse the internet in the UK.
Therefore if you want to dominate your competitors and become an industry leader then it’s absolutely crucial for your business website to be well optimised for mobile devices. The statistics are clear and the trend has been set. The importance of mobile-friendly website is and will be gaining increasingly significant position in terms of its influence on business performance. Mobile devices and their rise over the past few years has been well-documented and the immense popularity continues to break through milestone by milestone.
2. User experience on mobile devices is different from desktop screens
If a mobile user arrives to your business website or in fact any type of website, do not serve him desktop version instead of mobile one. When people access websites using their mobile devices then the measured usability is much higher for mobile websites than for full desktop versions.
Full desktop websites render incorrectly on mobile screens or render exactly the way they would on a desktop computer. That makes the website appear without usable navigational elements, the layout shrinks to a smaller screen resulting in very small font sizes that are unreadable. The user experience with such website is then equal to nearly zero. As a business organisation, one has to realise that keeping the customer happy is the priority number one. If a customer cannot reach you or let alone experiences disappointment with unusable interface then that is a no go zone and perhaps even danger zone for your business.
And last but not least, there’s a need for speed. Loading speed of a website should be included in every comprehensive mobile usability benchmark. There’s nothing more off putting than slow loading speed which will result in an opportunity cost in under 5 seconds. It’s just too easy to go elsewhere these days.
3. Bespoke websites that are mobile optimised help build business credibility and increase conversions
Great mobile-friendly website is an essential element of business branding. Without professional online presentation, often being seen as a shopping window of your business, customers will easily switch between tabs and go to your competitors. Mediocre, template-based, low quality websites act exactly in the same way as a bad shopping window; they hinder your business credibility and repel your potential customers. Search engines now prioritise well optimised mobile websites over those which are yet to be enhanced.
Therefore if you search from your smartphone for a website that is not necessarily mobile-friendly, the chances are, you won't find it on the search engine results page. This is as big problem which could be deeply damaging and detrimental to your business. If you do not invest in your online presentation then it will perform poorly. Credible organisations offer great user experience, impeccable user interfaces and flawless processes when it comes to doing business.