The Importance of a Mobile-Friendly Website Design for Small Businesses

According to a recent report by Statista, smartphones account for nearly 60% of web page views globally. With more and more people acquiring access to the internet, it's no surprise that most of your customers are reaching your website via their phone, a device that presents your site differently than a laptop or desktop.  

In other words, if your website is not responsive to mobiles, you can lose more than half of your potential customers. On top of that, search engines like Google consider responsiveness to be one of the ranking factors for websites, meaning your site could miss out on the SERP spot you have been aiming for.

Do you still doubt whether your website design for small business should be responsive? Don't fret. Today's blog presents a few solid reasons to help make up your mind.

So, jump into the section below and discover why responsive website design is essential, get tips to optimize your business website, and learn how to measure your mobile success!

The Rise of Mobile Browsing and Its Impact on Small Businesses!

Virtually you can view any website on a mobile device. All you need to do is type the URL into the address bar and let the browser direct you to the site. The term mobile-friendly has more to do with how your customers view the website on their mobile.  

It's a strategic approach that ensures that large and small business websites offer the best user experience to smartphone holders. It focuses on optimizing your website for smaller screens to increase accessibility.  

But when did having mobile-friendly websites become so important? How it may impact your business?  

Let's take a closer look at the rise of mobile browsing.

The Mobile-First Mindset:

In 2015, Google's announcement that mobile-friendliness would be a ranking factor became a game changer for websites. It triggered a shift towards mobile-centric web designs.  

In 2018, Google took another step forward by prioritizing mobile-first indexing. The goal was to start with the smallest screen and scale to ensure a solid structure.  

The result of these steps is visible in modern websites. For instance, the percentage of global traffic coming from mobile phones has been increasing since 2017. In 2023, it was around 54%. However, the traffic increased by more than 4% within a year.  

Another noteworthy factor is that many smartphone searches have a local intent. In fact, according to data, 46% of all smartphone searches on Google are looking for local information, significantly affecting local SEO.  

Since nearly all mobile devices nowadays have GPS, search engines can easily tailor their search results depending on users' locations. It allows local businesses to use mobile-friendly websites and location-based targeting to accurately target potential clients.  

The "Near Me" Revolution:

The search term most commonly used to find local businesses via smartphone is "near me." Most people use these terms to look for small business websites within their local area. With the rise of mobile and voice searches, "near me" searches have increased significantly.  

Experts have also pointed out changing user behavior behind the terms' increasing use. For instance, mobile phone users are no longer hesitant to keep their phone's GPS on, contributing to local SEO.  

In a recent survey, 82% of participants responded positively to using "near me" to search for local businesses on their mobile. With so many consumers prioritizing proximity when shopping, the popularity of location-specific keywords will only rise, creating more opportunities for brands and marketers.

Moreover, for local businesses, optimizing their mobile-friendly websites for "near me" searches can help connect with local customers, boost visibility in local searches, improve mobile search results, and increase trust and credibility.  

The Importance of Local SEO:

If you have a website for a small business, making it mobile-friendly is the key to ensuring a good local SEO strategy.  

Wondering what mobile-friendliness has got to do with local SEO? In a nutshell, a responsive website can improve the effectiveness of your local SEO strategy.

For instance, mobile-friendly websites deliver a better user experience. When your website is easy to navigate, it's more likely to retain visitors for longer. It increases the chances of conversions and reduces the bounce rate.  

Furthermore, Google's algorithm favors mobile-friendly websites for local search results. Therefore, if you plan to target local consumers, a mobile-friendly site can help your website reach more search results.  

Higher website rankings translate to better visibility and more access to potential customers. Also, responsive websites tend to be more functional and faster to load. Since search engines and consumers prefer fast-loading sites, a mobile-friendly web design can help you reach more people.  

Why Does Your Small Business Need a Mobile-Friendly Website?

Generic desktop websites don't render well on smartphones or tablets, whereas mobile-friendly websites are designed to display correctly on all screens. This type of website is responsive, meaning it can adapt to different screen sizes. They can modify the format of their content and other page elements to ensure mobile users can easily access your website.  

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Here are more reasons why a mobile-friendly website for small businesses is a must-have!

The User Experience Advantage:

A mobile-friendly website delivers a seamless and consistent browsing experience that enhances user engagement. Users who access your website on a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop will enjoy easy navigation, readability, and a visually appealing website.  

Additionally, mobile responsiveness enables your website to load faster. Most mobile-friendly sites use flexible graphics, well-written code, CSS, media queries, and other elements to stimulate their loading speed. Speedier loading times encourage users to explore more pages, increase conversion rates, and decrease bounce rates.  

You can improve the site's user experience by integrating the click-to-call button and Google Maps. This way, your website visitor won't have to hunt down the businesses' contact information. Instead, they can contact you by clicking a button on the home page.  

Similarly, with Google Maps integration, you will embed the website with interactive maps that allow users to visualize locations for accurate address selection.  

Improved Conversion Rates:

Prioritizing mobile friendliness when creating a small business website can boost the site's SEO ranking and help generate more traffic.  

Due to the improved user experience and user flow, visitors are likelier to perform their desired actions, such as purchasing products and services.  

You can incorporate clickable phone numbers on the site's landing page to increase the number of calls from potential customers. Consider using a local phone number with an enticing CTA that stands out.  

Also, responsive contact forms can increase the leads generated through them. These forms ensure that users can easily reach you regardless of their device. Lastly, a mobile-friendly website can increase conversion rate by enhancing the website's chances of link building and social sharing.

Standing Out from the Competition:

When you create a website for small businesses with a mobile-friendly layout, you make it easier for your consumers to access the site to purchase your products and services on any platform without issues.  

The flexible design makes your business website more attractive to search engines, giving you a competitive edge. Integrating local SEO and social media strategies with a responsive web design also becomes more accessible.  

Responsive design opens gates to multi-channelling. You can partner with leading companies like Yahoo and Amazon to increase your reach. Superior performance keeps your audience coming back and keeps you ahead of your competitors.  

The Drawbacks of a Non-Mobile-Friendly Website

Until now, we have discussed all the perks of having a mobile-friendly website design for small businesses.  

However, what would happen if you don't upgrade your non-responsive business website? Can having a non-mobile-friendly website affect your organization or its online presence?

Let's find out!

Read on to discover the most significant drawbacks of a non-mobile-friendly website and know what you might miss out on.

Frustrated Users and Lost Leads:

Non-mobile-friendly websites can be challenging to navigate. Your website visitors must constantly zoom in and out to scan the content. They will need to wait patiently for the website to load and then wait some more every time they go to another page. The irritating and cumbersome navigation process will lead to users abandoning the site. As visitors look for more user-friendly alternatives, you will lose valuable customers.

Increased Bounce Rate:

‍One of the biggest reasons small business website design services recommend mobile-friendly sites is bounce rate. Users quickly abandoning a site increase the site's bounce rate. A high bounce rate negatively influences user engagement and signals search engines that your website has no value, lowering SERP rankings.

Missed Business Opportunities:

‍Sites that don't respond to different devices often miss out on conversion and business opportunities. The reason is simple. When a site is hard to navigate, visitors struggle to take their desired action, such as filling out a query form or purchasing. They will most likely abandon the process, bringing down your potential sales and customers.  

Poor Search Engine Rankings:

‍Google's shift to mobile-first indexing means the search engine uses the mobile version of a website to predominantly index and rank them. Therefore, even if you hire the best small business website design services and create a website that looks fantastic on a desktop, it may not rank on the first SERP or achieve a lower ranking in local search results. Naturally, it will create difficulties for potential customers to find your business online.  

Limited Marketing Potential:

‍An unresponsive website limits your business's accessibility for a wide range of users, including people who have disabilities or use assistive technology. It leads to exclusion, a negative brand reputation, and reduced marketing potential. Additionally, a non-friendly website hinders your small business's mobile marketing strategies. You won't be able to take advantage of targeted mobile ads, mobile-specific promotions, and offers.  

Increased Maintenance Cost:

‍Given the constantly improving landscape of electronic devices, maintaining an unresponsive website can be expensive. You may need to create several versions of your site to cater to different devices. Also, you must frequently update and adjust the sites to keep them crisp, increasing maintenance costs.  

Making Your Website Mobile-Friendly: Solutions for Small Businesses!

Designing a small business website with a mobile-friendly layout enables the web pages to automatically adjust to the user's device. For instance, the text size is adapted to fit the smartphone screen so your customers can read the content without worry. Furthermore, the navigation menu is compressed into a dropdown menu.  

Have you ever noticed the three horizontal lines on websites that launch the navigation menu? That's a hamburger menu, a well-known responsive web design feature. You have probably also noticed that call-to-action buttons appear more prominent and straightforward on mobile-friendly websites to ensure visitors don't face any issues when navigating the site.  

That sounds interesting, doesn't it? Then, you might want to know how to incorporate these mobile-friendly features into your website.  

Here's our brief guide on making the website mobile-friendly!

The Power of Responsive Design:

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Before incorporating the features of a mobile-friendly web design, it's essential to know what responsive design means.

So, what's a responsive web design?

Responsive web design, or RWD, is a modern approach that enables web pages to automatically adapt and render on all screen sizes and devices, including laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and even smart TVs.  

Furthermore, this type of web design operates through CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. It uses various settings and considers several factors to tailor the website's elements to the user's device, including screen size, resolution, orientation, color capability, and other qualities.

As a result, you get a business website that adapts flawlessly to all devices. Since it improves the reach and accessibility of your website, you will enjoy more website traffic and conversion rate.

Furthermore, the website pages will load faster, reducing bounce rate and improving user experience. Also, responsive sites make tracking user journeys easier and keep up with web analytics, considering you don't have to deal with multiple versions of the same site.  

Now, you may wonder how to design a mobile-friendly small business website.  

There are two ways to craft an all-functional, responsive website for your business. You can use a website builder with responsive themes like Shopify, Squarespace, or WordPress. Alternatively, you can hire small business website design services to create your design. The latter option might be best for you if you are not well-versed in programming languages or using hosting platforms.  

Critical Considerations for Mobile Optimization!

Optimizing your website for mobile users may seem like navigating a foreign landscape. Fortunately, with the correct strategies, it's not as daunting as you may expect.  

To help you, we present a checklist of the most critical factors to consider when optimizing your business site. Following this checklist will help you ensure you don't forget any valuable step in the process.  

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• Responsive design: Integrate responsive design into your site to improve user experience and search engine rankings. With this strategy, your website can adjust its elements and layouts based on the user's device. We recommend using fluid grids and flexible images for the best website design for small businesses.

• Fast loading speed: Compress the images of your website, minify JavaScript and CSS, and use content delivery networks to optimize the loading speed of your website. Remember, the ideal loading time of a website is within 3 seconds.  

• Mobile search engine optimization: Improve your website's mobile friendliness by incorporating best SEO practices, including relevant keywords in the content.  

• Mobile-friendly navigation: Include simple, easy-to-use elements to your website, such as significant, easy-to-click call-to-action buttons. Ensure all the buttons and menus are reachable through one-hand operation. Also, provides users with easy access to the most visited pages, along with adding collapsible menus and sticky navigation features.  

• Clear and conscious website content: Prioritize "above-the-fold" content with impactful visuals, essential information, and compelling headlines. Ensure the content conveys the website's purpose and highlights key features.  

• Optimize videos and other media: To make your website more visible to search engines, you can optimize the videos on your site. For instance, by employing the dev, you can add a play/pause button and use custom controls. Root element and enable seeking forward and backward. Also, you can include a video sitemap, easily scannable HTM tags, enable indexing videos, and use thumbnail formats used by Google.  

• Optimized, high-quality images: High-resolution images may look good, but they can significantly reduce your website's loading speed. Hence, we recommend compressing the image file sizes to create affordable websites for small businesses.  

• Font and text optimization: Similar to videos and images, you can optimize the text and font of your website content to improve readability on smaller screens.

• Mobile-friendly forms: Forms are often the biggest hassle for mobile users. Hence, try to make your website forms sleeker and more straightforward, reducing the number of fields. Also, use mobile-friendly input types and auto-fill features, such as radio buttons or checkboxes.  

• Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) are well-known for creating lightweight versions of web pages optimized for mobile devices. They eliminate unnecessary elements from a website, increasing engagement and reducing bounce rate.  

• Touchscreen optimization: Since smartphone users use the touchscreen for interaction, you must include touch-friendly buttons, links, and other elements. Usually, 48×48 pixels is the ideal size for these elements.  

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Local SEO Optimization for Mobile

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We have previously mentioned that a considerable portion of mobile searches are location-specific or locally based. Keeping that in mind, it's essential to create affordable websites for small businesses that are mobile-friendly and local SEO optimized.  

Local SEO is highly effective in directing local customers towards your business. A study by HubSpot Marketing found that 72% of those who did a local search visited a store within approximately 5 minutes.

Several other studies have linked local SEO with more customers, better online visibility, improved brand reputation, quality traffic, and business-customer relations.  

To start with local SEO, you must include your business name, address, and phone number across all online listings and guides. The website should be accessible via mobile searches. Also, you can utilize customer review sites, such as Google My Business, to direct traffic to your website.  

Beyond the Basics: Optimizing Your Mobile Presence

Besides the tips above, you can take a few more steps to improve the SEO for small business websites while optimizing their mobile presence.  

Following these steps will help you create a local online presence and embrace the benefits of mobile marketing.  

So, read on!

Leveraging Mobile Search Features:

One of the most effective ways to gain visibility in local search results in Google is optimizing your Google listing or business profile. Simply use your Google My Business account to provide all the requested information for Google Search Knowledge Panel, Google Search local results, and Google Maps.  

To optimize the profile for local searches, ensure you:  

• Created a Google Business account and verified your ownership of the business,

• Provided accurate and updated information

• Included the business logo, acceptable payment methods, services and products you offer, hours of operations, and good quality, authentic images

• Encouraged your customers to leave a review of your business online

• Responded sincerely to their reviews

• Publish posts (e.g., announcing new product launches, special offers, and events) to your business profile using the Google My Business dashboard.  

The Power of Mobile Reviews:

Another way to optimize your website for a local presence while influencing local SEO is by getting positive customer reviews. With over 80% of customers referring to reviews before hiring a service or buying a product online, online customer reviews have become a critical part of SEO for small business websites.  

To encourage consumers to leave a review, we recommend:

• Asking for a review in person after closing a sale

• Sending a text or post-purchase email asking customers to write a review

• Responding to existing reviews professionally

It will help enhance the authenticity of your online presence and direct new consumers to your website.  

Embrace Mobile Marketing Strategies

Lastly, once you have upgraded your business website to be mobile-friendly, start utilizing mobile marketing strategies.

Mobile marketing strategies refer to tactics that engage audiences via smartphones and tablets. The primary goal of this marketing strategy is to reach new mobile users and enhance engagement with existing consumers.  

The techniques often involve targeting potential customers based on their behavior and demographics. It can help you deliver a convenient shopping experience to your consumers.  

Some popular mobile marketing strategies to take note of are:

• Mobile SEO (responsive website, optimized content, fast site-loading speed, and structured data)

• Mobile social media marketing (optimized ads, live streams, AR filters, personalized messages, stories, video content)

• Mobile advertising (paid ads)

• Location-based marketing (geofenced ads, proximity-based push notifications and content)

• Branded app marketing  

• Push notifications and SMS marketing

• QR code marketing

Measuring Your Mobile Success

Now that you have made a mobile-friendly website, it's time to check whether it's bringing the expected results.  

Are you wondering how you can assess the success of your responsive website? The easiest tool to use is Google Analytics.  

Here's how Google Analytics can help get valuable insights into traffic sources!

Website Analytics for Local Insights:

Google Analytics offers two types of insights: automated and custom. The tool automatically notifies users about unusual changes or emerging patterns in data via the insight's dashboard. Alternatively, users create conditions that trigger changes in data. Google Analytics can also inform you about these changes.  

It can help you understand the effectiveness of your mobile-friendly website by identifying where your website visitors are coming from. In addition to identifying traffic sources, you can also use this tool to assess user behaviour.  

Here is a brief outline of the most popular metrics you can check with Google Analytics:

• Users: New or unique visitors to the site

• Bounce rate: Percentage of visitors who viewed a single page or triggered a single request to the server

• Sessions: Time frame of visitors interacting with the website

• Average session duration: The average time frame of the interaction of each visitor

• Percentage of new sessions: Portion of first-time guests

• Pages per session: Average number of viewed pages during each session

• Goal completions: The number of times visitors completed a specific action

• Pageviews: Pages viewed in total

• Dimensions: Group of visitors sharing the same language, browser type, city, country, age, and models of devices

In addition to using analytical tools, remember not to track local SEO keywords. Assessing the performance of the keywords you use can help you track the performance of your mobile SEO strategy.

You can identify opportunities to optimize your content's performance, use high-ranking keywords to target relevant audiences, and use competitive keywords to gain an edge over your competitors.  

Enhance Your Website's Online Reach with GT Wizards' Custom Web Design Services!

With smartphones receiving new upgrades yearly, it's no surprise that internet users predominantly use their phones to surf the web. From booking cabs and ordering food to simple searches related to daily events, mobiles are the go-to devices for accessing the virtual world.

Hence, it is essential to create a website design for small businesses that will flawlessly adapt to smartphones' small screens. A mobile-friendly or responsive website will help you reach more consumers, rank better on search engine result pages, and increase your customer base.  

Alternatively, if you don't use a mobile-friendly website, you risk losing access to more than half of your customer base and noticeable SERP rankings.  

Thankfully, creating a responsive website is no longer lengthy or costly. At GT Wizards, we partner with industry-leading designers and developers to develop and design custom websites that fit every screen seamlessly. We promise superior user experience and improved SEO rankings within your budget!

So, reach out to us today!

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