We’ve been talking a lot about responsive WordPress design ever since Google rolled out its mobile search changes last month. Google has adjusted its mobile search rankings to give preference to mobile-friendly sites. This is not only important for your site’s users and rankings, it can mean a huge difference in your bottom line.
Mobile Search – Why It Matters
You know when you’re searching for a site on your smart phone and you come across one that is not mobile-friendly? It sucks, right? You’re forced to constantly scroll back and forth, pinch and zoom and maybe even stand on your head just to read the homepage.
Google’s number one objective has always been to provide quality content to search users. Now that mobile has become such an important part of our lives, it behooves them to make sure our user experience is a pleasant one.
There have been previous estimates that we’ve crossed the threshold into more searches being performed on mobile devices than desktops. But these were just best-guesses, until now.
On May 5, 2015, Google confirmed that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.”
Unfortunately, they didn’t elaborate or release any hard data. But we’ll take their word on it anyway.
Protecting Your Site’s Relevance
I know, it’s a bummer. You’ve worked for years to get your site’s desktop rankings onto the first page and, if you worked really, really hard, got it into one of the top three positions for your main keywords.
And now they’re asking you to redesign your site and make it mobile-friendly just to stay relevant in mobile search. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
Yes, there are free plugins that can create a mobile-friendly site for you. But chances are the resulting site will not reflect your company’s branding and can appear clunky and, to be honest, just not very inviting.
Responsive WordPress Design Means Mo’ Money
A recent article in Web Designer Depot released some very interesting data on companies who have recently switched over to responsive design.
Here’s what they’re reporting:
WebUndies specializes in sleepwear for the whole family. This e-commerce retailer took the mobile plunge in 2012 and saw sales rally 169.2% over the year prior. Think Tank Photo provides any accessory a photographer could ask for. When they made the switch to responsive, it translated into a 188% increase in revenue. Not only that, but mobile page views jumped 200% with double the transactions originating from smart phones and tablets.
An Opportunity to Get Ahead of the Big Guys
One of the statistics I found most intriguing is that, in a recent study, less than 19% of the top 10,000 websites were using a responsive design. When we look at the top 100 websites, only 12% have switched over to responsive.
What’s this mean? It’s your big chance to jump ahead of the giants and get your site ranked at the top of mobile search. These chances don’t come along every day, pal. So if you haven’t already transitioned your site to responsive, now would be a very, very good time to do so.
IvyCat’s Got Your Back
We’ve been building responsive WordPress sites for years now. If you’ve been thinking about jumping into the profitable pool of responsive sites, then you’re in the right place. Let’s start a conversation about your project today. Visit our Mobile-Friendly page and read more about why this is so important. Then, fill out the contact form, sit back and relax. We’re on it!