According to a report posted on TheGuardian.com, “Smartphones are now responsible for a third of internet access, up from 23% in 2014. Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Data Report shows the success of the devices has been at the expense of laptop computers, the latter dropping from 40% of online connections in 2014 to 30% in 2015.”

According to Google’s official blog, “Consumers are increasingly picking up their smartphones for answers. In fact, more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan. This presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to reach people throughout all the new touchpoints of a consumer’s path to purchase.”

The data clearly indicates that a large percentage of people nowadays access websites on their smartphones, tablets and phablets. A number of studies have further revealed that many users love websites that deliver app-like experience. In one of my previous blogs,on a different context, I wrote about Why its all about apps now and mobile web is dead. That is why; most businesses nowadays go mobile while planning and developing their websites. You can always reap a number of benefits by optimizing the look, feel and features of your website for mobile devices.

5 Reasons Why You Must Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

1) Enhance Your Website’s User Experience
The data released by several companies clearly indicate that a larger percentage of modern people access websites on mobile devices. So each website must deliver quality user experience across a variety of mobile devices to keep the users interested and engaged. When a user can access and read your website information on his mobile device seamlessly, he will love to visit the online portal at regular intervals. The richer user experience delivered by the website will further convert more visitors into customers.

2) Reduce Bounce Rate
While promoting a website, digital marketers find it challenging to hold the attention of visitors and convey information about the business, or its products or services. So the design and loading speed of a website have a huge impact on the increasing the attention span of visitors. Once your website is optimized for mobile devices, it will keep the users engaged and convey the desired message. The richer user experience delivered by your website will further prevent the visitors for switching to a competitor’s website instantaneously.

3) Increase the Website’s Search Engine Ranking
Google has already announced its decision to use mobile-friendliness as a metric for ranking websites. The step aims to deliver relevant search results to each user in a quickly and efficiently on their mobile devices. So the search engine ranking of your website will be impacted if it is not mobile-friendly. As a large percentage of website traffic comes from search engines, the mobile-friendly design will help your website to get more and regular visitors.

4) Boost the Website’s Loading Speed
Often the loading speed of a website impacts its user experience. Most users hate websites that responds slowly or takes more time to deliver information. When you use a mobile-friendly-design, the loading speed of your website will load more quickly. The Mobile app developers will further restructure the code to make the website load quickly on various mobile devices. The increased loading speed of the website will further contribute towards increasing its search engine ranking, as Google uses loading speed of websites a metric while ranking websites.

5) Promote Your Business as a Popular Brand
When you use a responsive and mobile-friendly design, it will be easier for digital marketers to promote your website. They can easily make your website rank high on search engine results pages by creating and distributing quality content. At the same time, it will be easier for the website to engage and retain visitors by delivering quality experience across many devices. Thus, you can always optimize your website to promote your business as a popular brand. At the same time, the richer user experience delivered by the website will help you to retain visitors and convert them into customers.

You also have option to assess the mobile-friendliness of your website using a number of online tools. Google has further make it easier for users to analyze if a particular web page is mobile-friendly or not by providing an online tool. Also, it further recommends several guidelines to optimize your website for various mobile devices. So you can always make your website mobile-friendly without putting extra time and effort.