When you walk into a store or a restaurant or a café, and they have some old features and an antique aesthetic, it can be rather charming. However, when you visit a website and it feels like you are stepping back in time, it has quite the opposite effect indeed.
This is why it is so important for your website to be optimised for ‘mobile first’ in 2023. It isn’t some gimmick or an extra opportunity for web designers to upsell you: it’s a necessary feature that—if neglected entirely—will lose your business an awful lot of money!
Read on and we’ll share the 5 reasons why all websites should be mobile optimised.
What is mobile first optimization?
Mobile first optimization refers to the process of making a website responsive so that it can work well on a mobile device such as a smart phone or a tablet (rather than desktop only).
If you’ve ever visited a website on your mobile device before and everything appeared to be very small and in order to read anything clearly you would have to pinch and zoom in; this is a website that has not been optimised for mobile by a digital marketing agency. And while it might seem innocent enough, it is, frankly, inexcusable. Here’s why…
5 reasons your website should be mobile first optimised
Let’s get stuck in. Here’s what you are missing out on:
1. Improved user experience: mobile responsive websites provide a better experience for your website visitors whether they are on a desktop computer at home or on their mobile phone on their commute to work. Everyone who accesses your website should share a similarly positive experience. When you opt for mobile first, you provide a better UX and this can benefit you in a multitude of ways; specifically, by increasing conversion rates and demonstrating to Google that you are committed to providing a quality experience (for which they will reward you with more visibility).
2. Improve website load speed: mobile optimised websites load much faster than websites which have been neglected. Given the fact that the average mobile webpage takes 15.3 seconds to load (which is far too long), a web page that has not been mobile optimised can take even longer – and that’s just one of many onsite optimizations that contribute to PLS.
3. Increase user engagement: websites with improved UX always gain more engagement. If your website is mobile optimised and loads quickly, you’ll get a much better response from your customers. Otherwise, if the UX is poor and the navigation unclear, many prospective customers will abandon your website entirely.
4. Longer spent on your website: similar to more engagement, you’ll notice that your website visitors hang around for longer when mobile optimised. This adds value in the eyes of Google and often results in higher conversions.
5. Improved SEO: Google rewards websites that follow the rules and go above and beyond to deliver value. Websites that are not mobile optimised are considered less valuable because the overall experience is less than satisfying – and not the sort of website Google wants to recommend.
Conclusion: Adapt or fall behind
If you are reading this and you have just very recently had a website built, the chances are yours has already been mobile optimised (though you may want to double check just in case). However, if yours is an old website and you’ve not done much in the way of modernisation or maintenance of late, then there’s a very good chance that it has a number of issues holding you back.
In which case, there’s an SEO agency in Dubai who can help you perfect your website, optimise it accordingly, and bring your online presence to the forefront of web-innovation. Your new customers will thank you for it!