With so many marketers and designers scrambling to optimize their mobile experiences, not enough people are asking why this is such a crucial aspect of modern business.
Today, we’re running through 12 unique reasons why you should optimize your mobile UX, and give you some hints about which areas to focus on. Let’s go!
Those of us who saw the internet rise in the 90s know the power of a tech revolution, and we’re seeing another one take place before our eyes with mobile browsing.
Nearly three-quarters of global internet users rely on their smartphones as much as a desktop or tablet, meaning that the power shift has largely already taken place!
What you need to figure out is how your brand can best represent itself in the mobile arena, whether through apps, websites, social media platforms, and whatever else you can leverage.
Users aren’t just casually browsing the web on their phones to waste time, they’re gathering key information and making major purchases right in the palm of their hand.
Around 28% of smartphone users globally make frequent purchases on their devices and are more than willing to hit the buy button in the right context.
Your job is to give them the information they need to make a decision, and the intuitive mobile experience they want during the conversion process.
While the majority of product research still takes place at home, more consumers are getting comfortable using their phones to get last-minute information while standing in-store!
That means that your mobile experience better be easy to use and feature congruent messages transmitted across all areas of the web.
Increasing coordination between sales, marketing, design, and development departments will be key to master branding across various devices and platforms.
We tend to associate smartphone use with specially-designed applications from the App Store or Google Play, but it’s time to update that mindset.
More people are using their phones to browse the web normally without the use of apps, making it more reminiscent of a desktop experience. That means users are jumping from one site to the next and keeping multiple tabs open for maximum convenience.
Mobile-first indexing is here to stay, meaning that Google is crawling all those mobile sites with precision and intention to rank!
Make sure you research the technical side of mobile SEO and structure your sites for the best possible results in the SERPS.
Factors like accessibility, speed, and local information are all taken into consideration, so map out a mobile-specific SEO plan to get ahead of the pack.
Why take the time and energy to type out a search query when you can just shout it across the room? This is the train of thought for a growing number of voice search users worldwide.
Ask Google, ask Siri, or ask Alexa, and you’re going to get a curated set of answers based on unique search criteria, not unlike the normal SERPs on mobile and desktop.
To earn a prestigious position at the top of the voice search rankings, you will need to deliver a ton of value to your niche audience and constantly optimize your page to keep the top spot.
The smartphone is a very personal piece of technology for many people, and they expect to have a unique brand experience based on their past experiences.
Brands like Netflix, Pinterest, and Medium have already mastered personalization on mobile devices, and it’s time for your company to play catch up if you aren’t already.
Don’t hesitate to encourage users to create accounts on your mobile site and incentivize them to drop information that enriches their overall UX.
There will always be a place on the web for detailed long-form written content, but with attention spans shortening every year, you’re going to want to diversify your arsenal.
Bold infographics, entertaining videos, and, yes, funny memes, should all be part of your content mix moving forward. Plus, you have to make them all mobile-friendly.
You’ll need to take some creative chances and strike out a few times as you experiment with different content types, but the engagement and excitement you generate will be worth it.
There’s a special term we use for brands whose social media presence consists only of a stagnant Facebook page from 2008: out of business.
You want your company to be active and engaged on all the relevant social media platforms, and creating content that matches the unique mobile experiences of those sites.
Instagram stories, Pinterest posts, and Twitter live feeds are all fair game. Be ready to experiment and find out which avenues deliver the best results for your money.
Ever waited for a mobile page to load and gave up after just a few seconds of blank screen time? You aren’t alone. More than 40% of mobile users abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
If you want to minimize bounce rates and maximize conversions on mobile, you need a solution like Google Accelerated Mobile Pages that load your site in a flash.
Product pages, customer reviews, and checkout processes all need to be optimized for lightning-fast mobile speeds, so don’t forget to upgrade your most important pages.
You’ve probably become familiar with web page analytics platforms for desktop, but mobile is a whole new ballgame. You’ll quickly see that users come and go way faster, and make decisions quicker than they ever would on a desktop.
In other words, the stakes are high for mobile UX, and time-on-page is more valuable than ever.
Be sure to dive head-first into any mobile analytics tools you can find, and be aggressive in your pursuit of strategies that will boost engagement and conversions.
That could mean shorter, sweeter mobiles pages, exclusive promotions on the mobile site, or a total design overhaul from the ground up.
Some people still think that the Internet of Things is a far-away dream never to be fully realized. Newsflash: it’s here now, and you need to catch up!
Mobile users are connected to more apps than ever, from their home appliances to their cars and everything in between.
Your goal is to figure out how your mobile experience can help smooth out the daily grind of the typical smartphone user, through targeted ads, personalizes communication, and the like.
It may look like mobile browsing is fully realized, but there is a long way to go from here.
Brands will be competing for attention on mobile apps, SERPs, and social media platforms for many years to come. With these tips, you can craft a mobile strategy that gives your brand the advantage in this competitive new domain.
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