More than 5 billion people across the globe use smartphones. Statistics show that the average adult spends at least four hours and 29 minutes scrolling through their mobile devices every day. Mobile dethroned desktop back in 2016, and nowadays, it still has the lead with 55% of the market share. Smartphones have revolutionized the way we consume content. Consequently, brands need to jump on the bandwagon if they want to remain relevant.
In 2022, more and more people prefer navigating their favorite sites and platforms through their cellphones instead of using a traditional desktop computer or laptop. And while computers still aren't out of the game — they're useful for multiple tasks, after all — it's evident that most users have migrated their online endeavors to the palm of their hands.
Smartphones are indeed more convenient, portable, and comfortable to use than computers. Because of that, we're in the middle of a new era — so brands either have to adapt or perish. If you want to learn how to optimize your brand's website and marketing for the mobile screen, read on.
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What Is Mobile Optimization?
Mobile optimization refers to the practice of designing your company's site with mobile consumers in mind. Mobile optimization is not to be confused with making your site mobile-friendly. Optimized sites respond exclusively to mobile devices by providing users with larger navigation buttons and reformatted content. Mobile-friendly websites, on the contrary, only shrink the size of their pages to fit the mobile screen — they don't alter its design, structure, page loading speed, and other factors that affect the overall user experience.
Mobile optimization ensures your site's mobile users experience little to no trouble connecting to your site and exploring your content. By improving the way people interact with your pages and all the elements in them, this practice increases the possibility of users spending more time exploring what your site offers. At the end of the day, mobile optimization can give you those highly coveted clicks and boost your sales.
Contrary to popular belief, mobile optimization is not only about website enhancement. It also has to do with improving your digital advertising efforts. Keep in mind that the same users that explore your optimized site through their smartphones will expect the same experience when visiting your social media channels and receiving your newsletters.
Why Are Mobile Marketing and Site Optimization So Important?
Nowadays, we have access to everything through devices that fit in the palm of our hands. In fact, this technology has given internet users very high expectations with regards to their user experience. People love the immediacy mobile browsing provides, and they're becoming increasingly intolerant of websites that don't meet their speed, quality, and design standards. 50% of users will leave a website if it doesn't load in 6 seconds. That's why websites — and, by extension, marketing efforts — that aren't optimized for mobile devices don't stand a chance.
As mentioned earlier, desktops are no longer the most common device to access the internet. Marketers and designers need to have a mobile-first mentality if they want to retain people's attention once they've reached their content. In the mobile era, almost 55% of the traffic on most sites comes from smartphones and tablets. Optimization is crucial to grow and maintain your web presence.
Mobile optimization is not only relevant to large companies. It's also essential for your small local business to survive in a highly competitive landscape. Up to 56% of the on-the-go searches have local intent, so you must do your best to stay visible and make the user's purchasing journey easier. Keep in mind that mobile optimization also influences your ranking on the most popular search engines. Google mainly uses mobile-first indexing, so to appear within the first few results, you need to step up your mobile game.
Optimizing your site and marketing to enhance the mobile experience of your clients has numerous perks. The most relevant are:
- Enhanced mobile SEO
- Increased accessibility and user-friendliness
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Faster loading times
- Increased engagement
- More potential conversions
- Improved performance
- Increased click-through rate
To ensure your site is up to your audience's expectations, you'll need to test and update it regularly. If you don't, you might assume your pages are mobile-optimized when in reality, they're causing frustrating interactions with existing and potential customers — which is costing you money!
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How To Know If Your Site and Brand Are Good on Mobile
As previously stated, just because your site is mobile-friendly doesn't mean it's mobile-optimized. There was a time when it was enough for your site to change sizes to adapt to the smaller cellphone screens. But today, that doesn't make the cut. A site that only gets larger or smaller depending on the screen you're using is no longer attractive enough — if at all.
Consumers expect designers and marketers to make their lives much easier when approaching a brand for the first time or making a purchase decision. As such, they're used to lightning-fast loading speeds and fully responsive websites. If your site doesn't go further by creating a reformatted version of its desktop counterpart, then it's most likely not mobile-optimized. To please your website's visitors, you must ensure that it's specifically developed with enhanced features such as:
- Navigation menus
- CTA buttons
- Images
- Other assets such as easily findable contact information
How To Optimize Your Site and Marketing for Mobile
If your website isn't fully optimized for mobile, don't fret! There are numerous actions you can take to provide your visitors with a top-notch experience when they browse through your content. Below you'll find some of the most important ones:
1. Make Your Site Responsive
People often access the internet while they're on the go. Your business needs to generate an access point that ensures usability and satisfaction. You need to provide solutions that allow them to easily view your ads, blogs, landing pages, email marketing, and more from their preferred devices. This will guarantee more engagement and conversions in the long run.
2. Improve Your Current SEO and Content Marketing Strategies
You're probably already executing an SEO and content marketing plan as a part of your presence-building strategy. However, for mobile optimization purposes, you'll need to ensure mobility is being considered for keyword research. Keep an eye on trends for mobile organic search, and be sure to measure engagement and discoverability in your mobile marketing strategy against your desktop plan.
3. Be Clear and Concise in Your Content
We live in a fast-paced world where people are constantly on the move. Your audience may be jumping from one activity to another and only reading your content in-between other tasks. You need to ensure you make your content short and to the point in order to prevent them from directing their attention elsewhere. This will allow you to deliver your message and ensure that people retain information.
Additionally, keep in mind that mobile screens are smaller. What looks like a small paragraph on a desktop could look like a gigantic wall of text on a smartphone or tablet. Keep your content easier to read by breaking longer sections into smaller chunks of text and using scannable bulleted lists when possible.
4. Make Your Content Easy To Interact With
When it comes to mobile optimization, oftentimes less is more. Keeping things as simple as possible will guarantee your site and other marketing materials work perfectly on your visitors' devices. Refrain from overloading your pages with unnecessary assets and images that will only slow down your loading times. Instead, stick to the basics and ensure they offer unmatchable performance.
People tend to prefer cleaner websites with fewer steps to get from one page to another. Keep your offering one click away to increase your chances of converting customers and increasing your profits.
5. When in Doubt, Ask Your Clients
It can be hard to score something objectively when we've put so much time and effort into it. When you're evaluating how well-optimized your site and marketing efforts are, you might have some blind sports. You may tolerate more flaws in your results because you're worked so hard on them. But if you really want to know if your mobile optimization efforts are working as they should, ask the user.
Make sure to perform regular surveys to learn the pain points of your customers when using your site or viewing your content on their gadgets. They'll be the first ones to complain if your content and assets are taking ages to load or if your website isn't responsive.
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Optimize Your Mobile Efforts Today
Mobile optimization is crucial to surviving in the current digital landscape. Nowadays, more and more people are discovering brands through search engines and social media. If you don't take appropriate action to ensure your website works perfectly when visited through mobile devices, you'll risk losing potential clients — and, therefore, sales.
Optimizing your company's digital life is not the only action you can take to perfect your marketing strategy.
If you're ready to take the leap and build a winning plan to put your business on the map, reach out to Scorpion. Our team will gladly assist in setting and reaching your goals.