I wanted to touch on a subject that I believe has some preconceived, and ill-founded, notions. In the past, we have put a lot of focus on building websites from the ground up for newer businesses, non-profits, and even bloggers. This post, however, is going to be geared to those who have a website that was created long ago and has not been updated to address the mobile takeover.
You may insert some dramatic “gasp” at this point, but I assure you these sites exist. This could be because some believe their tribe would never view their site from a mobile device. This, my friends, is a sad misconception confirming prejudices about having a mobile presence.
Most of us still refer to the device you can hold to your ear to have a conversation with someone else a “phone”. However, today’s mobile devices more resemble mini computers. One of the best history lessons on mobile devices was written by Brian Fling and can be found here. I won’t get into the lengthy lesson, just a brief summary.
The mobile phone aspect dates as far back as 1976 with the small suitcase that people would carry around. Fast-forward a little bit and you might remember the smaller than brick sized 2G phones that introduced the ability to send SMS messages. Although these phones had increased technology, they were still a far cry from the devices we know today.
The next rendition is what Fling refers to as the “Feature Phone Era”. This brought the ability for users to listen to music, take pictures, and surf the web straight from their phone. From here, the features war began driving the devices through an evolution that has still yet to cease.
You may be asking, “What does this have to do with my website?” Patience my young padawan. Wisdom is gained with time. Or something like that.
We know that the iPhone was introduced in 2007. This modern-day miracle has completely changed how we look at mobile devices. Since then we have seen a steady increase in web traffic from mobile devices. Statista shows that in 2018 over half of the global website traffic was done via mobile devices.
We have talked about the importance of responsive web design in conjunction with a mobile first design. I won’t rehash that now, but you should definitely go to that post and take a gander. The important thing to remember is that if your site is not friendly to mobile then Google won’t be friendly to you.
In the age of the mobile-first index, your mobile website is the lifeblood of your existence in the SERPs.
Anna Crowe
Simply put, you need to get on the mobile bandwagon whether you want to or not. This can often be done without losing the overall look and feel of your current site. However, this could be a great time to give your site a much needed overhaul.
I like to think that I have given you enough references to prove this point. If you still believe otherwise, feel free to search the importance of a mobile friendly site and let me know if I am wrong.
Still not sure what exactly to do with all this? Don’t worry, we can help you get your direction.
