As a business owner or manager you already know how vital it is for your company to have a website if you want to stay ahead of your competition and increase your digital marketing ROI.  But did you know that it's even more important that your website be optimized for mobile? 

An astonishing 90% of American adults have a cell phone and 58% of those are smartphones.  And to broaden that scope even further, 32% of American adults have an e-reader and another 42% of American adults own a tablet. 

How many of those people do you think are going to wait until they get to their desktop to search for what they need?  Not very many!  Would you?  Most people pull out their digital device the moment they need something.  Very rarely will someone wait until they get to their desktop to search for what they need, if they even remember it at all. 

The Traits Of A Mobile User

A mobile user wants their information quickly.  In other words, they need something and they want it now.  They don't want to wait. 

You will get a better response from your mobile users if you give them small little bits of information that can be processed quickly.  Whether that be to answer their questions or to lead them to a sale.

Mobile users make more purchases than desktop users and most mobile purchases are impulse buys.  Therefore, it's imperative that you have a mobile optimized website and that it's very user-friendly and easy to navigate.  This will allow your customers make their decisions and purchases quickly while on the go.

Do You Really Need A Mobile Optimized Website?

YES!  And that's an understatement!  If you weren't convinced by the statistics above that you need a mobile optimized website, then keep reading - here's why:

• A quarter of all web users from around the world conduct a web search on a mobile device and that number will only continue to grow.

• Your website's search engine ranking will suffer if it's not mobile ready.

• A mobile ready website will help build your brand.  People who browse on mobile devices are more likely to return to your site if it's mobile optimized, as long as it's easy to use.  Additionally, about 90% of people say they move between multiple devices when trying to accomplish something. 

• Because of the multi-functionality a mobile ready website offers, you will experience a higher digital marketing ROI.  In addition, a desktop website that isn't mobile ready is too hard to navigate and read.  Therefore, your  websites important information may not be easily seen.  Mobile users have no patience for that and will move on to another site that is mobile ready rather than trying to navigate through one that's not. 

• Having a mobile optimized website will reduce your site's bounce rate.  If a mobile user lands on your site and sees that it's not mobile ready, he will immediately click out of your site and move on to another one thus increasing your site's bounce rate.  Having a high bounce rate is an indicator to the search engines that your site is not very popular and that could lead to lower search engine rankings. 

What A Good Mobile Optimized Website Must Have

There are several things you need to have in place if you want your website to be seen as mobile friendly through the eyes of your users and through the eyes of Google, or any other search engine for that matter. 

To do this, you will need to pick up your smartphone (and tablet) and test the following:

1.  Does your site load within three seconds or less?

2.  After arriving at your site, what stands out and where is your eye drawn?  Is your eye drawn to your main message or selling point?

3.  How does the site look?  Is it cluttered with too much content or too many banners or ads? 

4.  Is your site easy to read and navigate?

5.  Click through all the pages.  Do the tabs take you where you wanted to go?  Was the information easy to find? 

6.  As you went through the site, were you lead directly to the call to action and did the call to action make you want to click on it and do what it was asking you to do?

7.  Did you feel you received a good customer experience while using your site?

8.  If it wasn't your website, would you want to return?  If not, why and what do you need to do to make the site more appealing to your users?

After you have your mobile website set up, you'll need to continually monitor each page and the customer engagement they receive.  Look for pages that have a high bounce rate and try to determine why -  then adjust them accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Your site must be mobile ready if you want to increase your digital marketing ROI.  Far too many businesses think of a mobile website as an afterthought to their main website.  But this is a huge mistake because an increasing number of consumers are opting for mobile browsing over desktop browsing.  And that preference is only going to continue to grow as more and more people begin using mobile devices to access the internet.  Therefore, having a mobile optimized website is no longer an option, it's a necessity!