A mobile-responsive website is crucial to having an online presence and staying competitive in the boating industry. Your website is where you show the boat brands your business specializes in and the services you provide.

Besides having valuable information, your website should also be responsive and mobile-friendly. Responsive web design is simply a website that adjusts gracefully to fit on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. No matter what device a visitor is using, it should adjust without inhibiting the view of key elements.  

In this blog, we will discuss 7 reasons why your business should convert to mobile-responsive web design.

1. Mobile-Responsiveness Is Recommended By Google

Google recommends Responsive Web Design (RWD) as the best way to target mobile and tablet users. It also favors mobile-optimized sites when presenting results for searches made on a mobile device. This is especially true when mobile users search for local services. It is better for users to share, interact with, and link a website that is accessible in mobile devices.

For instance, a mobile user shares content from your mobile site with a friend on the Facebook app, who then accesses that content using a desktop, which results in the user viewing a stripped-down mobile site on their desktop. This creates a less than positive user-experience. Since Google is now placing a large emphasis on user-experience as a ranking factor, this is essential to consider with regards to SEO.

2. Mobile-Responsive Websites are Easier to Manage

Having a separate desktop AND mobile site requires having separate Google AdWords campaigns, SEO campaigns and separate Google Analytics reports which becomes very confusing. Managing one site is far easier than managing two sites.

Another challenge to having a separate mobile site is that you will need to build the authority and reputation of this site from scratch. It is better just to upgrade to a mobile responsive site and keep the existing traffic and authority that you already have. Typically, mobile-responsive websites perform better and are easier to maintain.

3. Positive User Experience Is Key

When mobile users land on a website that is not mobile-responsive, those users tend to leave that website and the opportunity to showcase the value you offer is missed.

In fact, according to Think With Google, if a user lands on your mobile website and can’t easily find what they are looking for, there’s a 61 percent chance they will leave and go to a different website. Data shows a positive experience with responsive websites as well. A user is 67% more likely to buy a product or use a service if the website is compatible with their device. It would make sense to upgrade your site into a mobile responsive one.

4. Social Media Activities Bring Mobile Visitors

If you have been following our advice and incorporating social media in your online marketing strategy, you will have most likely experienced increased mobile traffic. A study by Marketing Charts cites that 55% of social media consumption happens on a mobile device with more and more people accessing social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram on their phones.

For example, if you are a boat dealer advertising an upcoming event on Facebook, it is very likely that you will link the event back to your website for people to register or simply browse. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you might struggle to get people to sing up or be interested at all.

5. A Mobile-Responsive Website Will Attract More Customers

Because so many people are now using their smartphones to access the Internet, this has led to a rapid decline in desktop Internet browsing.

Having a mobile-friendly business website will attract many more customers for you. According to Maximize Digital Media, over 90% of mobile users search for a local business enterprise on their mobile device. What is even more significant is that these mobile searchers invariably contact the business they have researched within 24 hours. Hence, if your business website is mobile-friendly, you will attract more customers and increase your profits.

6. eCommerce Is Now mCommerce

The dramatic growth of mCommerce in the last 5 years has prompted small businesses to revamp their business websites. If you are a boat dealer, your customers will not be making the purchases online, however, they will be using your website to get familiar with your inventory. If you are a boat club or boat rental business, a lot of your customers will rely on your website to purchases membership or to pay for your services.

Regardless of the nature of your boating business, you want to make sure your website is updated for mCommerce. As mobile shopping becomes more mainstream, a lot of these activities are and will be happening more often on mobile devices. It will be beneficial for you to ensure your business website is mobile-friendly.

7. Setting Up a Mobile-Responsive Site Is Inexpensive and Simple

As with all sophisticated technology, mobile web design and upkeep used to be extremely expensive when it was first introduced. Now, however, you can have a fresh, dynamic responsive web design without spending too much of your marketing budget.

In a lot of cases, you don’t even need to start creating your website from scratch. Your website developer would be able to explain what options are available to you.

The Future is Mobile…We Can Help!

As you can see, having a mobile-friendly responsive website is an indispensable tool for your online marketing campaigns.

Because smartphone use is expected to exceed actual desktop use in the next 12 months, your business will miss out on an excellent opportunity to generate more leads if you don’t act now.

As a web design agency, we specialize in making websites mobile-friendly. Call us today at 888-928-4587 to see how we can help.