Adopting a mobile-friendly strategy for your business website could be the key to unlocking more conversions in 2023. If you’re a small business owner, you need to understand that your target audience wants access to your website NOW. It doesn’t matter whether they’re accessing your site via their mobile phone, laptop, or tablet.
If your website doesn’t provide optimal and consistent user experiences across all devices, it’s not set up for success, i.e., direct conversions. That’s where responsive website design can help. Responsive design is the web design practice of creating a fully optimized website structure that’s instantly accessible on any device.
In simpler terms, a responsive website is an all-around player that doesn’t need code updates to be loaded on different devices. It will automatically shrink in size on smaller windows/screens. It will automatically screen-adjust the size of all website content.
It will also automatically put all priority elements (e.g., all CTAs on your site) of the website in front and improve the site’s overall readability. All these features make responsive websites primed for higher conversion rates. Here’s a step-by-step explanation of this phenomenon:
How Does Responsive Web Design Help You Get More Conversions?
The average Google user leaves a website if it doesn’t load in less than three seconds. If your business website isn’t built to load super-quick on all devices, you’re already losing a huge chunk of your potential conversions.
That’s just how the minds of new-age Internet users function and if you don’t adapt to these trends: you’ll miss the tiny window of time you get to convert a website visitor into a customer.
On the other hand, if your site is responsive, it won’t need to go through time-consuming redirects to load properly on any browser, or on any device. But, the main reason responsive web design can help you get more conversions is not the Internet users.
It’s Google. Here’s why.
Responsive Web Design: The Key to Success in Google’s Mobile-First Internet
It’s been almost six years since Google rolled out the mobile-first index. Since then, the search engine has been primarily using mobile versions of websites for indexing & ranking purposes. Google has repeatedly clarified that they have not built a separate mobile-first index.
They simply index the URLs of mobile-friendly websites first. That means if your business website has two separate URLs: one mobile and one desktop, Google will automatically index the mobile version first.
Google will open your website’s desktop URL for desktop users and the mobile URL for mobile users. But, the mobile version’s content will be indexed first. mobile-first indexing has been the default for new websites since July 1, 2019. According to Google, all websites published after this date have mobile-first indexing activated by default.
Even if your website is not 100% responsive, it may get moved to mobile-first indexing. A website doesn’t necessarily need to pass Google’s mobile usability test to get indexed by the Google Search algorithm.
But, if it wants to rank high, passing this test is essential. After rolling out the mobile-first index in 2018, Google launched the “Page Experience Update” in 2021. This update has made mobile-friendliness an all-important ranking factor for websites.
What is “Mobile-friendliness”?
According to Google, creating the same website experience on desktops and mobiles is the first step towards making your website “mobile-friendly.” In addition to that, you’ll also need to apply basic responsive web design practices like:
Using flexible grid systems & responsive layouts for all pages
Ensuring all robot.txt directives are the same on the mobile/desktop websites
Ensuring that the mobile version of your website is designed to handle increased crawl rates
Using optimized images, adjustable font sizes, and touch-friendly design elements to ensure the website loads quickly on mobile devices.
Verifying both the mobile/desktop sites in Google’s Search Console
Testing your site on devices of all sizes and from all major brands to ensure it provides uniform user experiences on all of them
Adopting these responsive web design practices will drastically improve your website’s SEO success. This SEO boost alone is enough to drastically increase your website’s on-site conversion rate:
Multiple studies have confirmed the fact that websites that earn the top 10 organic positions on Google command most of the web traffic (upwards of 30%) for a specific search query.
In a recent 2023 study from Whitespark, titled “Local Search Ranking Factors” over 44 local SEO experts claimed that the most important organic ranking factor on Google for local businesses is “on-page signals.”
As per that study, 36% of local business websites that rank top on Google every year for local search queries, do so because their websites have the right “on-page signals.”
Mobile-friendliness is one of the main “on-page signals” that Google’s search algorithm assesses when it’s ranking websites for specific search terms.
In other words, adopting responsive web design practices can drastically boost your website’s chances of organic SEO success. This SEO success will drive web traffic which in turn will improve your website’s chances of securing more conversions.
Responsive Web Design’s Impact on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Responsive web design practices can boost your website’s SEO & help you generate more traffic. It can also improve your website’s overall user experience (UX) and user flow, especially for mobile users.
Why is that important? Visitors are likelier to perform desired actions (e.g., purchasing products or services) if they’re browsing through a website that easily renders on all devices. This inherent feature of responsive web design is vital in another website optimization strategy:
CRO is a conversion-boosting tactic that many brands use on their websites. It’s the systematic process of guiding website visitors to take specific steps while they’re browsing a website. It’s not a practice that web designers engage in directly. But, the two are closely related.
Responsive web design is focused on enhancing all visual, functional, & transactional aspects of a business website to make it more accessible.
CRO is focused on analyzing user behavior, recognizing aspects of the website that need upgrading, and making those necessary changes.
In most cases, these changes are design-related. Adopting a mobile-friendly web design means that all layouts, functionalities, and transactional features on the landing pages on your website will be easily accessible to mobile users.
So, what have we learned so far? First is the fact that responsive mobile websites attract more traffic in general, thanks to Google’s mobile-friendly approach. Second is that responsive websites have built-in CRO features that increase their chances of securing conversions.
Other Ways Responsive Web Design Helps Secure More Conversions
Here’s an additional list of advantages that responsive websites have over non-responsive ones in terms of securing more conversions:
Deliver Better User Experiences: Responsive websites load faster & are easier to navigate. These qualities encourage users to stay longer on websites. And if users stay on your website for longer periods, their chances of becoming paying customers/subscribers increase drastically.
Address the Needs of Impatient Shoppers: Improved page load speed is a direct benefit of adopting responsive design practices. Websites that load quickly don’t deliver frustrating shopping experiences. Instead, they satisfy users to the point where many of them are inclined to return.
Share-Ability: New-age responsive website designers add a variety of social sharing capabilities to their sites. These capabilities make websites easily “shareable” on social media platforms, texting apps, etc. Growing and monetizing online audiences is much easier for such websites.
Final Take
Prioritizing the responsiveness of your business website can, directly and indirectly, boost its chances of securing conversions. On the other hand, not investing in responsive web design can dwindle your site’s online visibility & shutter its ability to secure healthy conversion rates.
Adopting a mobile-friendly strategy for your business website could be the key to unlocking more conversions in 2023. If you’re a small business owner, you need to understand that your target audience wants access to your website NOW. It doesn’t matter whether they’re accessing your site via their mobile phone, laptop, or tablet.
If your website doesn’t provide optimal and consistent user experiences across all devices, it’s not set up for success, i.e., direct conversions. That’s where responsive website design can help. Responsive design is the web design practice of creating a fully optimized website structure that’s instantly accessible on any device.
In simpler terms, a responsive website is an all-around player that doesn’t need code updates to be loaded on different devices. It will automatically shrink in size on smaller windows/screens. It will automatically screen-adjust the size of all website content.
It will also automatically put all priority elements (e.g., all CTAs on your site) of the website in front and improve the site’s overall readability. All these features make responsive websites primed for higher conversion rates. Here’s a step-by-step explanation of this phenomenon:
How Does Responsive Web Design Help You Get More Conversions?
The average Google user leaves a website if it doesn’t load in less than three seconds. If your business website isn’t built to load super-quick on all devices, you’re already losing a huge chunk of your potential conversions.
That’s just how the minds of new-age Internet users function and if you don’t adapt to these trends: you’ll miss the tiny window of time you get to convert a website visitor into a customer.
On the other hand, if your site is responsive, it won’t need to go through time-consuming redirects to load properly on any browser, or on any device. But, the main reason responsive web design can help you get more conversions is not the Internet users.
It’s Google. Here’s why.
Responsive Web Design: The Key to Success in Google’s Mobile-First Internet
It’s been almost six years since Google rolled out the mobile-first index. Since then, the search engine has been primarily using mobile versions of websites for indexing & ranking purposes. Google has repeatedly clarified that they have not built a separate mobile-first index.
They simply index the URLs of mobile-friendly websites first. That means if your business website has two separate URLs: one mobile and one desktop, Google will automatically index the mobile version first.
Google will open your website’s desktop URL for desktop users and the mobile URL for mobile users. But, the mobile version’s content will be indexed first. mobile-first indexing has been the default for new websites since July 1, 2019. According to Google, all websites published after this date have mobile-first indexing activated by default.
Even if your website is not 100% responsive, it may get moved to mobile-first indexing. A website doesn’t necessarily need to pass Google’s mobile usability test to get indexed by the Google Search algorithm.
But, if it wants to rank high, passing this test is essential. After rolling out the mobile-first index in 2018, Google launched the “Page Experience Update” in 2021. This update has made mobile-friendliness an all-important ranking factor for websites.
What is “Mobile-friendliness”?
According to Google, creating the same website experience on desktops and mobiles is the first step towards making your website “mobile-friendly.” In addition to that, you’ll also need to apply basic responsive web design practices like:
Adopting these responsive web design practices will drastically improve your website’s SEO success. This SEO boost alone is enough to drastically increase your website’s on-site conversion rate:
In other words, adopting responsive web design practices can drastically boost your website’s chances of organic SEO success. This SEO success will drive web traffic which in turn will improve your website’s chances of securing more conversions.
Responsive Web Design’s Impact on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Responsive web design practices can boost your website’s SEO & help you generate more traffic. It can also improve your website’s overall user experience (UX) and user flow, especially for mobile users.
Why is that important? Visitors are likelier to perform desired actions (e.g., purchasing products or services) if they’re browsing through a website that easily renders on all devices. This inherent feature of responsive web design is vital in another website optimization strategy:
CRO is a conversion-boosting tactic that many brands use on their websites. It’s the systematic process of guiding website visitors to take specific steps while they’re browsing a website. It’s not a practice that web designers engage in directly. But, the two are closely related.
In most cases, these changes are design-related. Adopting a mobile-friendly web design means that all layouts, functionalities, and transactional features on the landing pages on your website will be easily accessible to mobile users.
So, what have we learned so far? First is the fact that responsive mobile websites attract more traffic in general, thanks to Google’s mobile-friendly approach. Second is that responsive websites have built-in CRO features that increase their chances of securing conversions.
Other Ways Responsive Web Design Helps Secure More Conversions
Here’s an additional list of advantages that responsive websites have over non-responsive ones in terms of securing more conversions:
Final Take
Prioritizing the responsiveness of your business website can, directly and indirectly, boost its chances of securing conversions. On the other hand, not investing in responsive web design can dwindle your site’s online visibility & shutter its ability to secure healthy conversion rates.
Written by Muhammad Talha Waseem
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