Why You Should Take a Mobile First Approach to Website Design

| Posted in Marketing

A Mobile First Approach: Why It Matters So Much to Your Website

Mobile technology, browsing and responsive websites are nothing new. In most parts, the mobile responsive website has been around for a decade now.

There have been many changes to how we use our mobile devices and what we expect out of the website experience when using our cell phone or tablet.

As a business it is vital to have your site completely mobile friendly. According to research.com 63% of all online traffic comes from a mobile device.

mobile first design approach

Tech Jury reports that over the course of one year from 2019 to 2020 mobile users share increased by 10% and that adults in the United States spend 4 hours per day using their mobile device.

Even more importantly is that mobile purchases have moved past desktop with 58% of all online purchases being made on a mobile device. Gone are the days of people only browsing on their mobile device and purchasing from their desktop.

If your E-Commerce store is not a great user experience on a mobile device, you are likely missing out on many sales opportunities.

mobile first approach burlington

What does mobile friendly and mobile first mean?

According to Thryv.com this simply means that your website performs well on a mobile device like a phone or tablet.

“Performs well” is where things often go wrong. Think of how much your browsing habits differ on a mobile device vs a desktop, how much more you read on a desktop vs a mobile device and how easy a website is to navigate through on a mobile device vs a desktop.

Putting all of these together means there should be many considerations for your mobile first approach with your website experience to make it “Perform well.”

This also includes how search engines see your mobile website as well as how your online advertisements perform. You may be spending more on both SEO and SEM because you have a poor mobile experience on your website.

What does Google want from a mobile friendly website?

Google loves to shares information to help you perform better for their users. If you are not doing what Google wants in a mobile website your organic SEO rankings will suffer and your paid ads campaigns will cost more.

Read this short list on what Google wants from a mobile friendly website:

  • Make it easy for customers
  • Measure the effectiveness of your website by how easily mobile customers can complete common tasks
  • Select a mobile template, theme, or design that’s consistent for all devices (for example, use responsive web design)

For full details of this list click here:
https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/get-started

Google mobile first

You can check to see if your website is doing well with its mobile layout here:
https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Where do most Do It Yourselfers Go Wrong

Being a digital marketing agency that specializes in building mobile friendly websites, we see a lot of the same mistakes when we inherit a website from a previous developer or a Do It YourselfER (DIY). The most common mistakes made often start right at the beginning of the process.

Here is a list of the most common mistakes we see from DIYers or inexperienced website designers/developers when it comes to doing a mobile first approach:

  • Starting with a desktop layout first and having no mobile first considerations
  • Using a prebuilt theme that is slow and had many pieces you will not use
  • Using cheap website hosting that is harmful to your Google Organic SEO rankings
  • No thought put into where your icons, buttons and Calls to Action should be
  • Using small icons that are not useful
  • Items placed too closed together making it hard for users to click (Google does not like this!)
  • Shoehorning content into a design making the site imbalanced or too long on a mobile device
  • Using the same content and design across all pages from a desktop design making the site unbearable to browse through on a mobile device
  • Putting too much information on your mobile website
  • Having too many navigation links on your mobile website
  • Having too many clicks to make a purchase

mobile first 404 errors DIY

How We Can Help with a Mobile First Approach to Your Website

As a digital marketing agency we are here to help. Our experienced team of professional website designers, website developers and digital marketers get together to bring all elements together for the best mobile browsing experience for your website including a mobile first approach.

Our team takes a look at your goals and learns about your business before we dive into your website design. Understanding what you need is the first step in providing a rock solid mobile and desktop experience.

When we build a website for you we cover design, code, mobile experience, content, images, video, indexing with Google and much more!

Contact us for help with your mobile first approach to website design

Designing a mobile first website that works well is a big piece to generating leads and sales for your business . Need help figuring out how to move forward?
Please contact us using the form below, using the chat function on our website, or by calling 1-855-656-5262. Follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn to find more about how we can help improve your website presence. It is our goal to get your business noticed online.

We are located in Burlington, Ontario, serving businesses big and small to help with web content. Contact us today!

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