For a long time before I bought an eReader, I switched between a desktop application and my cellphone when I was reading the electronic version of a book. This idea worked just fine in theory, but the further into a book I got, the more I realized that what I saw on the desktop was not matching up with what I saw on my cellphone screen. When I opened the application to read on my phone, not only were the lines and font off, but they also had different page numbers and odd symbols in place of where pictures or paragraph headings should have been. It was a frustrating issue to deal with when I would switch back and forth rather frequently. What likely happened is that the third-party eReader application I was using was not optimized for my phone — only for a desktop. With more than half of all searches coming from a mobile phone rather than from a computer, it is more crucial than ever to ensure that your website is mobile responsive. There are many benefits, including the following:
- Better SEO ranking. Because so many searches are made from a phone or tablet, Google’s SEO rankings are now based off the mobile versions of websites rather than the desktop. By optimizing your site for a mobile device, you are helping your SEO ranking.
- Better user experience. People are unlikely to stay on your site or recommend it to others for an increase in traffic if the site is difficult to navigate or if things do not load the way they should.
- Better conversion rates. When your site is mobile responsive, you are less likely to lose visitors when they switch from desktop to mobile versions. They do not have to redirect several times to different versions of the site or look around to find what they need, so they are more likely to stay on your site.