As a business owner, you know how vital seamless online channels are to your conversion and customer retention. Optimizing your website and utilizing digital integrations are essential for improving your business’s online performance. When you deploy these tactics in your web design and operations, you’ll undoubtedly experience an uptick in traffic-but what if these changes aren’t enough?
The modern climate of online shopping and e-commerce demands modern solutions for the customer. Designing your business website requires keeping consumer preferences and habits in mind. While some business owners might overlook the importance of highlighting mobile integrations – we have come to understand customer buying behaviors dictate a different tract. It’s become increasingly apparent recently that mobile-first web design is no longer the way of the future – it is now the standard.
Customers are more likely to be shopping and surfing the web from their phones than desktop computers. So why wouldn’t we prioritize this user experience for potential visitors? Mobile-first design has become a standard for web design practices for many reasons, and if you haven’t made the switch, you should certainly consider it. The following are some of the major benefits of utilizing this UX web design for your business.
1. It’s Better for SEO
You might be wondering: how can a mobile-first design help your website’s SEO? There are actually many elements to mobile web design that positively impact your site’s search engine rankings. From overall performance to the actual search engine algorithms, focusing on your mobile website design first will offer an extra boost for your site.
When looking at website performance, mobile websites typically perform better than desktop sites because they’re streamlined and simplified. With fewer pieces of information on a page, it’s much easier for you to optimize your content and the end result will be a page that loads much faster. Focusing on SEO is more straightforward when there is less content to comb through.
It’s also common practice today for search engine algorithms to favor mobile sites over desktop deployments. For example, according to Google’s own best practices for website ranking, they use mobile-first indexing. They state, “Google predominantly uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking.” While algorithms can be hard to crack, Google has given us a clue here as to how important it is to focus on mobile website development.
2. Improved User Experience
One of the biggest reasons why you should consider adopting a mobile-first approach in your website design is that it puts your customers first. You consider yourself to be a consumer-centric business, so why wouldn’t you prioritize your customers’ needs as soon as they click on your website?
Making mobile website development the focus shows that you’re recognizing your customers’ preferences. If you put all of your efforts and resources into redesigning your desktop site and neglect the mobile version, it won’t go unnoticed by visitors. An optimized, mobile-first design will look better, load faster, and present crucial information to your customers more efficiently.
3. Scalability
A crucial aspect of mobile web design that many people overlook is its scalability. It’s so much simpler from a design perspective to start with a mobile-centric design and scale it to meet the needs of a desktop design afterwards. When you start with a smaller canvas, you can capture all the key elements that are most vital and attractive. Once you’ve completed this smaller-scale mobile website design, you can then utilize the larger canvas of a desktop site to add more details and dynamic content.
It’s a common experience in mobile web design to find it difficult to scale down from the desktop version of a site. You see all the specific details and design intricacies of the desktop version, and you want to bring all of these over to the mobile version of the site. This approach doesn’t generally “translate” well resulting in the mobile website design looking either cluttered or bare.
Transition to Mobile-First and Experience The Difference
Evolution and adaptability are critical attributes for any successful business. As times change, it’s important that you and your business keep pace at least – if not stay ahead of the trends. In order to drive your business forward today, putting your mobile website development first should be your starting point. It will undoubtedly strengthen your digital presence and overall website performance. Mobile-first web design will also give your brand the power to completely eclipse the competition.
To find out how AWG can assist you with Mobile-First Applications for your business – contact us today!