I invite you to take a walk down memory lane with me. Do you remember your first cell phone? Perhaps it was a car phone. Or, maybe you referred to it as a “brick” and used it to play a black-and-white game called Snake. Since then, cell phones rapidly transformed into smartphones that harness more power than your early 2000’s computer. With each update, our devices keep getting smarter.
At the touch of our fingertips, we now have lightning-fast access to unlimited information. Smartphones and high-speed internet have completely changed the way we interact with the world. Less than two decades since the first smartphone was invented, a 2021 study revealed that 56% of all web traffic comes from mobile phones.
As our mobile devices get smarter and faster, all the trends point towards this mobile traffic number continuing to grow. That brings us to your website and the key reasons why you should prioritize mobile performance.
3 Reasons Why Mobile Website Performance Matters
Let’s break each of these down below:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Indexing sites like Google and Bing have played a large role in internet accessibility and popularity. According to HubSpot, the average person makes three to four Google searches each day. As the dominant player in the indexing space, Google decides which search results are returned based on your search queries.
In fact, over 90% of web pages receive zero organic traffic (not paid for through GoogleAds) from Google, and 5% of pages receive only 10 visits each month.
That’s because most sites don’t follow Google’s SEO best practices. Put simply, if you want people to find your business on the web, you have to play by Google’s rules—otherwise known as their algorithm. And that algorithm is constantly changing.
The good news is, Google’s algorithm updates ~typically force websites to provide a more positive and safe user experience. The bad news is, if you aren’t paying attention, your site can easily fall behind, getting left out of the online conversation. The algorithm change that had arguably the largest impact in the last decade is known as mobile-first indexing.
What is mobile first indexing?
Starting in 2018, Google began changing the way that it indexes your site. Instead of analyzing the desktop version of each web page to see if you’re “following the rules,” the Google algorithm now only checks the mobile version of your site.
That means, if your site isn’t performing well on mobile, it cannot rank well in search results. Lower search rankings mean fewer people can find your products or services online. On the flip-side, creating a more positive mobile experience helps you obtain higher search rankings. AKA: more traffic to your website.
Inbound Marketing
As a HubSpot partner and firm believer in their sales and marketing philosophies, you know we had to talk about inbound marketing. If you aren’t familiar with this term, don’t sweat it. We’ll break it down below:
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to the target audience. One major tactic of inbound marketing is content creation—blogs, reports, resources, and landing pages that attract your target customer.
The primary advantage of an inbound marketing strategy, especially when compared to an outbound marketing strategy, is that inbound marketing happens organically. By creating evergreen content that ranks well on search engines (read Google), these resources can create passive lead generation for your business.
Why is mobile optimization vital for inbound marketing?
SEO plays a pivotal role in inbound marketing. That means, your site has to be mobile-friendly in order for your content to create passive lead generation.
We often see this with prospects: they are investing significant time creating amazing content for their website, but their site isn’t optimized for mobile. Therefore, none of that content ever reaches its target audience. If this sounds familiar, it’s time to prioritize a mobile optimization strategy.
Lead Generation
Deprioritizing your mobile site performance has cascading negative effects on lead generation. Aside from the SEO impacts mentioned above, a poor user experience will stop a prospect from converting. Because over half of all search queries are performed on a mobile device, your business MUST prioritize the mobile experience—not just desktop—when you plan conversion pathways.
For example, consider a prospect finding your site through a paid AdWord. Even though that user found the content they were interested in, the mobile experience didn’t look appealing and the contact button was cut off, preventing the prospect from completing a form. You just paid for that user’s click to your website, but you weren’t able to generate a lead for your sales team. All of this could have been prevented by optimizing the mobile experience.
Does the mobile experience still impact lead gen for B2B businesses?
If you’re a B2B marketer, you may find yourself thinking: Yes, I hear you—but over 70% of our traffic is on desktop, and we don’t need to think about the mobile user experience.
We hear this from our B2B clients all the time. While your primary audience may be visiting your site on a desktop, you still have to prioritize mobile optimizations if you want organic traffic. Sure, you could try to use Google AdWords and pay for your clicks, but you’re missing out on an essential segment of the market share.
One study found that 94% of searchers skip paid search results—that’s a huge section of your target audience. Plus, this strategy leaves your entire lead generation funnel hinged on your ability to advertise. Each click you pay for increases your acquisition cost and cuts into your overall margin.
So yeah, your mobile website performance matters.
If you find yourself curious about the success of your site’s mobile performance, head over to our resources page to request your free SEO assessment today. And stay tuned for part two of this series, where we’ll cover 5 actionable ways to optimize your website for mobile.
Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out on this upcoming content series!
