Mobile optimised or mobile friendly?
I come across too many businesses that still don’t have a website and are relying solely on social media, which isn’t for everyone, and of those that do have websites most of them are not really making the best of them. You need to make sure your site is optimised and ready to deliver good results. Having a mobile friendly website is good but having a mobile optimised website is better.
The main difference is the design approach which then affects the user experience. A mobile friendly site is usually designed first for desktop and will work on mobile but may be missing some features. It’s effectively a slimmed down version of the desktop site. A mobile optimised site on the other hand is often design from a mobile first perspective and loses none of it’s functionality or user experience when viewed on either mobile or desktop.
Why should you care? According to an Ofcom study, reported widely in the Autumn of 2018, Britons check their mobiles on average every 12 minutes and are online for 24 hours each week! Almost everyone who uses the internet these days are using their mobile phones to search for your products or services. Around 40% of all eCommerce sales are happening using a mobile platform. To cap it all, as of October 2017, Google adopted a mobile-first policy so it is prioritising mobile over other platforms in terms of search results. The better your site is on mobile, the more likely it will rank higher in Google search.
Page Speed
This is yet another important factor as most people are so impatient and want everything instantly. Google revealed that people expect a website to load in just 2 to 3 seconds. 53% of people said that they would abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. So this doesn’t give you much time to grab and keep their attention!
Content Is King
Google does not like thin content, Search Engine Watch recommends more than 300 words per page to ensure a website can be indexed. If you want to rank higher on search engine results pages, it is important to make sure your content is long-form, informative and tonally right for your clients or customers.
Getting The User Experience Right
This is the most important factor to consider when designing your website, because if your visitors aren’t happy with the quality of your site they will leave without looking at your products or services and more than likely go to one of your competitors.
User Interface
Search engines are complicated beasts, they are no longer finding results base on exact word match keywords. They are looking at search history, geographic & demographic information and a whole lot more. Just because you technically optimise your site doesn’t mean it will perform as you want it to. It requires a more in-depth understanding of who your client base is to create content and an experience that is tailored for them. You need to consider developing one or more customer avatars to better understand their needs and wants. Then once you have this it will be easier to create a site that appeals to them.
We hope that you have found these hints & tips helpful and should you need help bringing your site up to date or have any questions please let me know, I am happy to help.
