Why You Must Modernize Your Company Website For Mobile Users

A few years ago, you spent a portion of your company budget to create a website. You may have jobbed that out to one of many IT outsourcing companies, or you may have built it in-house. Either way, it’s been up and running without fail since launch. The site might include an e-commerce section that allows customers to purchase your wares. It might include a list of your services, your staff, a nice history of your company, and plenty of photos for viewers to take in.

That is all fine and good. And bravo to your company for knowing that an online presence is a must-have in the modern world. However, if that website doesn’t follow a particular trend, it might wind up being relegated to the same graveyard as Windows XP, Amiga, and NextOS. That trend is mobile. 

Mobile Usage Growth

According to Statista, Q2 mobile traffic is currently at 48.91%. Although that is down from the highest ranking of 52.99% during Q3 of 2017, it is a dramatic increase since Q1 of 2015, when mobile traffic was at 31.16%. And since Q1 of 2017, mobile traffic has hovered near the 50% mark. 

To bolster that statistic, consider that, according to Perficient Digital, mobile devices accounted for 42% of total time online and mobile bounce rate came in at 50%. Also, according to Perficient Digital, the desktop vs. mobile stats look like this:

• 2016 – Desktop 43% Mobile 53%
• 2017 – Desktop 37% Mobile 63%
• 2018 – Desktop 42% Mobile 58%

Once again, the numbers don’t lie. Mobile usage has, for the past three recorded years, outperformed desktop usage.

All of that paints a clear picture – mobile is ruling web consumption. In other words, your company website must be mobile-friendly. You should consider that when hiring IT outsourcing companies. 

Still not sold on the idea? According to Wearesocial.com, as of 2019, there are over 7.6 billion people on the planet and 5.1 billion unique mobile users. That’s not a market you want to miss out on. In fact, a large percentage of those users have abandoned the desktop/laptop altogether. Can your company live without that web traffic?

Not All Sites Are Created Equal

When a user visits a website on a mobile device, its browser will automatically default to viewing the mobile version of the site. If there isn’t such a version, or if it isn’t optimized properly, the site simply won’t function well. In such instances, users have the option (depending on the mobile web browser they use) to view the Desktop site (Figure A).

Figure A

The option to view the Desktop version of a site from the Chrome browser on Android.

The biggest issue with viewing the desktop version on a mobile device is that it tends to be quite challenging to use. Users must frequently zoom in and out to interact with various elements. Those small screens were not meant for desktop-like viewing. Because of this, businesses should consider modernizing company websites an immediate priority.

One of the single most important factors for website analytics is how long users remain on a website. When users visit a website that is not optimized for a mobile device, they immediately leave. What’s more, those visitors will head over to a competing company website that is optimized for mobile usage.

So even though your website looks stunning and functions perfectly on a desktop browser, you will very quickly see your web traffic plummet when accounting for mobile users. 

And this should be considered one of the many top IT outsourcing benefits. If you hired a third-party company to build your site “back in the day”, you should turn to that same company and have them completely retool it for mobile traffic. Otherwise, you’ll find your competition is leaving you in the dust.

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