Mobile Friendly Websites - Responsive Websites

Is there a difference between a mobile-friendly website and a responsive website? Everyone keeps asking, “Is your site mobile friendly? Are the pages on your website mobile friendly?” Do you know why?

According to Google, “more than half of all search traffic comes from mobile devices and tablets.”*

Let’s go over a few basics. Mobile users expect, yes that’s right, expect to get what they need immediately. Google and AnswerLab did a study of mobile users. Each participant was asked to voice their thoughts out loud as they completed specific tasks.

What did the study find? (In this blog I’m going to give you the “Do’s” not the “Don’ts”)

DO:

Make secondary tasks available through a menu or below the fold. Above the fold on your website is precious real estate.
Make sure your users can easily get back to the home page. I run into this a lot – no way back to the home page. It is very aggravating.
Don’t start out with a full-page promo. Most times they will just bounce right off of it.
Keep menus short. No on one mobile wants to scroll through a ton of options.
Make sure you have a site search bar as one of the first things they see on your site. This makes it easier for them to find exactly what they are looking for.
If you are selling products, add a filter so they can narrow the view to exactly what they are looking for.

Capture their information at a later time or when it is really needed. (Sorry but I have to mention this don’t – don’t make them register just to see what’s on your site! I don’t know about you, but I leave the site!)
Give purchasers the option of registering as a guest. Not everyone wants more account logins to manage. This can be another annoyance to visitors.
Make sure your phone numbers on the site are what I call “hot”. Make them click-to-call so they can easily contact your business.
Tell users to rotate their phones if your products are best displayed horizontally, so they are aware of this.

Responsive Websites vs Mobile Friendly Websites

A responsive website is one that “responds” based on the needs of the user and the device. Let’s say part of your home page has three columns. A responsive website on mobile will change to a one-column website.

A mobile-friendly website works the exact same way across devices. It stays the same on a computer or mobile device. This causes some features to be limited due to being difficult to use on mobile.

So in other words, you can achieve a more customized experience for your customers on mobile with a responsive website. Most modern WordPress themes are responsive, but if your site is older and the theme hasn’t been updated in a while, it may not be. Also, if your site is really old, you may need to have a developer transfer your website database and information to a newer, responsive theme. (If you need a website developer, let me know.) You don’t want to lose customers and prospects on mobile because the number of mobile users is increasing every day.

Here is Google’s site to test your websites mobile speed. Check yours out!

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite

And if you have any questions, shoot us an email.

* Google Analytics Data, US, Q1 2016.