You've probably worked long and hard on creating your inbound marketing website, but the question is, is it mobile friendly? In today's digital landscape, where mobile devices dominate online interactions, it's crucial to ensure that your website is compatible with mobile devices. Conducting a mobile-friendly test can help you determine if your website meets the needs of mobile users. By optimizing your website for mobile devices, you can enhance the user experience and maximize the effectiveness of your inbound marketing strategy.
“Mobilegeddon” was announced by Google just over a year ago, advising us that mobile rankings would differ for mobile friendly sites as of 21st April 2015. Now, just over a year later, another boost has been given to mobile friendly sites for mobile search. The latest release (12th May)
With an advisory from Google that "In the USA, 94% of people with smartphones search for local information on their phones," the importance of making your inbound site mobile friendly in the context of a broader marketing strategy is more prevalent than ever. Incorporating content marketing, such as a blog post, into your inbound strategy can further enhance your site's mobile accessibility and engagement.
How do we Define inbound marketing Today?
Inbound marketing can be defined as a customer-centric approach to digital marketing that focuses on attracting, engaging, and delighting potential customers. Unlike traditional outbound marketing tactics, which interrupt audiences with advertisements, inbound marketing aims to create valuable content and experiences that organically draw prospects to your business.
The core principles of inbound marketing involve attracting the right audience through relevant and compelling content, engaging with prospects by nurturing relationships and providing value, and delighting customers by consistently delivering exceptional experiences. By aligning with the way modern consumers make purchasing decisions and building trust through personalized interactions, inbound marketing generates higher-quality leads, increases brand awareness, and drives long-term business growth.
What makes a great inbound marketing website?
A great inbound marketing website is characterised by a captivating design, compelling content, and user-friendly navigation. The design should be visually appealing, reflecting the brand's identity, while the content should address the target audience's needs and pain points, establishing the brand's expertise and credibility.
A user-friendly navigation system ensures seamless exploration and guides visitors through the conversion funnel. By combining these elements, a great inbound marketing website creates an engaging online experience that attracts, engages, and converts visitors effectively.
Check out the following sources for more information:
- Take the test to check if your website is mobile friendly.
- Mobile SEO Overview
- What makes a good mobile site?
- Duplicate content
- Top things to know when building a website for mobile devices
What Makes a Site Mobile Friendly?
To make your site mobile friendly, it should be easy to view on all screens and devices (desktop, tablet, and mobile). This requires a responsive website design. Additionally, implementing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques is important for improving visibility on search engine results pages.
This can be completed in three ways:
- Responsive Design - This is Google's preferred method. I.e. Where the code and URL remain the same on every device.
- Dynamic Serving - Different verisons of your site are deisplayed on the user's browser
- Separate URLs - Building a separate mobile website. Dependant on the user's device, they will be driven to the mobile site.
Check out the following blogs to learn more about mobile-friendliness:
- Take the test to check if your website is mobile friendly.
- Mobile SEO Overview
- What makes a good mobile site?
- Duplicate content
- Top things to know when building a website for mobile devices
Mobile Design Key Principles
The fundamentals are clear, “Mobile users are very goal-oriented. They expect to be able to get what they need, immediately, and on their own terms” with ease. Below are a few key recommendations:
- Text should be easy to read. Users should not need to zoom to view the information.
- Interactive content should work across all mobile devices. Flash content is not compatible with IOS (apple) devices. Animations and video content should not be restricted.
- Calls to Actions. All links and CTAs should be large and well-spaced to make it easy for a user to tap on their touchscreen.
Why Choose Responsive Design over a Separate Mobile Site?
1. Upload content once and avoid duplicate content
When implementing a successful inbound marketing campaign and targeting your desired audience, it's crucial to consider the impact of duplicate content. If you have a separate mobile site, you may need to upload information twice to your site. However, be aware of the Google Panda release (24th February 2011) and the definition of duplicate content as substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. This knowledge is essential for optimizing your inbound marketing strategies and ensuring the effectiveness of your inbound marketing efforts and campaigns in reaching and engaging your target audience.
2. Irrelevant redirects
There is a chance that if you have not created the equivalent URL on mobile, users directed to a mobile version of the site may encounter an error page or be redirected back to a mobile homepage. This can result in a poor user experience, as they would need to search for the page again. This affects search engines, target audience, and social media platforms.
3. Google recommends it
Google advises against creating separate mobile URLs as it increases maintenance work and introduces technical problems. Instead, Google recommends using responsive web design (RWD) to serve desktop and mobile on the same URL. This approach simplifies website management while ensuring a mobile-friendly experience for both website visitors. To enhance credibility, consider showcasing customer testimonials. Optimizing site speed is crucial for online shopping and improving search engine rankings. Trusting the experts in these areas will help you achieve a successful online presence.
Picking an Agency that Understands your Inbound Requirements
Our team have built many responsive sites and where preferred, separate mobile sites.
Here are a couple of UX results from of our recent site builds, please get in touch to see our full portfolio.
Our very own website. Showcasing UX design at its best (and practicing what we preach….)
Professional Service Company
The key aim of this project was to rebuild the existing site without changing the design (launched at the end of January 2016). The existing site was not mobile responsive.
Improved User Experience Results:
Page Speed Improvement:
As part of the scope, to improve the SEO, page speed was a key factor. As you can see from the image below, this was improved from 63/100 to 92/100.
If you are interested in inbound marketing and making your site mobile friendly, please get in touch for a no obligation consultation.
