Mobilegeddon! (Part Two of Two)

Last year, mobile Internet use surpassed that of desktops and laptops.

Today’s mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes. It is imperative that your Website optimize the viewing experience no matter which type of device your prospective customers use.

Here’s a stat borrowed from one of my healthcare clients: 61 percent of prospective customers on a mobile device will leave your Website for a competitor’s if yours isn’t mobile-friendly. There are two ways to go mobile-friendly, and one is clearly better than the other.

First, build two Websites, one for desktops and one for mobile devices. There are two problems with this approach. It requires more development time and cost. Worse, ensuring that search engines attribute the traffic from both sites to one entity is a challenge. A few years ago, this two-site solution was the only feasible way to accommodate shifting Web viewing patterns. Fortunately, technology has adapted and there’s a better way.

Second, adopt design principles known as "responsive design," enabling your company’s main Website to look and function effectively across all devices and screen sizes, from desktops and laptops, to tablets and phones, and hopefully one day, watches. By providing one Website with the same content for all devices, responsive design makes it easier for search engines to index a Website, improving its ability to be found in native search results. Perhaps more importantly, an optimal viewing experience should boost new prospect conversion rates. Not surprisingly, responsive design is the method recommended by Google.

As I mentioned last week in part one of this blog, Google officially announced changes to its search algorithm prioritizing responsive sites. The bottom line is this: For many print-related businesses, SEO (search engine optimization) is more important today than ever and the SEO landscape has significantly changed. Therefore, consider making the jump to a responsive Website, even if a redesign of your current site wasn’t in this year’s game plan.

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Join me next week as we discuss something entirely different: the power of good old-fashioned letter campaigns.