Why is having a mobile responsive website so important?

Benefits of a responsive web design when building a recruitment website.

Gone are the days when desktop web usage was the norm. In recent years and with increased technological advancements, mobile web usage has taken over the scene with October 2016 marking the first month where mobile traffic exceeded desktop. Of course, you don’t even need stats to know that mobile devices are dominating desktops when it comes to web usages these days. It’s mind-boggling that the websites of many recruitment agencies cannot be fully accessed on mobile devices while some others are completely inaccessible.

If you’ve ever tried to access a website designed for the large, landscape screen of a computer on the small, portrait oriented screen of a mobile device then you understand the frustration. No doubt, all the pinching to zoom in and out, and scrolling left and right as well as as the to-be-expected up and down has caused you to click back to google and try the next search result, never to return.

Now imagine you’re an employer looking for an agency to handle the hiring process for you. You want the smoothest and easiest experience with a company that has their finger on the pulse. Does your website reflect this?

If you’re website isn’t adapting to the screen it’s being presented on then the answer is no.

Customer satisfaction
The essence of making improvements is for increased visitor satisfaction. According to statistics by Google Insights, there is a 61% chance that when customers experience difficulties using a particular mobile site, they are more likely to leave to another site and never return again. However, if the customer feels satisfied, there is a 67% chance that will patronize the business.

I think it’s rather obvious which side of those statistics you want your agency to be on.

Social media
According to a study by Comscore, about 55% of social media use is done via mobile devices and Facebook has surpassed google for referral traffic to websites. So people are more likely to be directed to a website from Facebook than Google and the majority of those on Facebook are using a mobile device.

This means that there’s a big chance that a visitor to your site has left a social app designed solely for mobile devices. If they are then delivered to a clunky desktop site on their mobile then they are probably going to be quite miffed and click away.

Mobile Templates or Responsive Design – What the Future Holds
The truth is that either a mobile template or a responsive design would make your website accessible to potential clients on mobiles, however, one of them would be better than the other.

The responsive template basically involves having one coded website with a standard content that is able to adapt to the different screen sizes of mobile devices.

With the mobile template, a separate site and sub-domain is created with its content designed for mobile users which would be different from the content of the desktop site. This mobile template site is created with a specific screen size in mind, thus creating user difficulties when a different device or screen size is used.

The difficulties associated with the mobile template make the responsive design the sought-after option. Additional reasons that make the responsive design even more appealing include:

Google’s preference
In June 2012, Google’s representative explained that Google prefers sites with responsive design to mobile templates. A single URL reduces occurrence of on-page SEO errors and makes it easier for Google crawlers to crawl and index. Therefore, sites with responsive design are more easily maintained and would perform better in search results.

Faster page load speed
It should only take a matter of one or two seconds for pages to load on mobile devices. When customers feel a drag in the site opening, it is only a natural tendency to leave the site. And when this happens, there is a great possibility that they won’t return. Google knows this and considers site speed when serving up results to make sure that the sites it recommends are desirable to the end user.

Device adaptability
Responsive design is made to adapt to different devices according to their screen sizes. So a responsive design makes the site look catchy both for desktops with large, landscape screen sizes as well as mobile devices with varying screen sizes.

Conclusion
Once upon a time, mobile considerate sites were a mark of innovation, now they are a must-have. However since mobile sites are created differently, a responsive design is best to give an increased user satisfaction across all devices. In turn, boosting your business.

If you would like to learn more as to how your company might benefit from responsive web design, contact us and we can arrange a call to discuss how we can help.