3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Have a Mobile Responsive Website

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Have a Mobile Responsive Website

For the average small business owner, the question whether their website really needs to be mobile responsive is one of the current hot topics – is it really worth the investment or is it just another fancy gimmick that’s only going to end up cutting into the bottom line?

We’re here to tell you that there are 3 legitimate reasons why you may not need a responsive web presence, no matter what they’re all telling you. If your business applies to all of the three, you can forget all about what happens in the mobile sphere forever.

You Don’t Mind Ignoring Over 80% of Web Users  

Opting against a responsive mobile design would be the equivalent of discarding a huge chunk of potential online leads. Only a business that doesn’t depend on their website to remain solvent would be able to afford doing something like this.

Why? It’s simple – because mobile usage is exploding on a truly global scale. According to Super Monitoring, mobile users account for 15% of all traffic. Not only that, by 2014 it’s expected that mobile will trump overall desktop numbers. And by 2017, fewer than 20% of the population will be going online with a traditional PC.

So if you’re happy to ignore over 80% of potential new customers and leads, then don’t go responsive. After all, having more business and a wider reach can be a little bit of a headache (note: we hope your sarcasm meter is in full working order).

You Don’t Care About Google

When the world’s search engine giant comes out with a statement, it’s advised that you take it seriously – if you care about your rankings at all, that is. It’s recently re-iterated the important of serving users with responsive websites. Google has specially set guidelines recommending a single code base that adapts to any device, be it a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Go against the grain, and you’ll see the results in your tumbling rankings.

And don’t think Google won’t know when you haven’t complied with what it’s asking for. When mobile users click back to the search results after having visited your site, Google can tell. They can also see how long the average person spends on your property. It cares about giving people what they want – if you don’t go responsive, you’re essentially telling Google your site is the exact opposite of what users are looking for.

Not worried about ranking on Google? If traffic from the world’s most widely used search engine isn’t important for your business, then responsive design isn’t for you anyway. Be ready to find yourself in the backwater of search results in return.

You Don’t Want To Be Future-Proof

Many businesses don’t want tinker with their existing web properties and decide to turn to a dedicated mobile site instead. This may work fine – for a little while. When the next device is released, further work is required to make sure you have another website to cater to the new audience.

Responsive websites, on the other hand, adapt to any new environment that’s placed before them. Whether it’s the latest Android tablet or the new iPhone 27, for example, your website will ‘respond’ to requirements. This makes responsive design incredible flexible. It means that you can leave your website as is, no matter what your customers are using.

So there you have it – three legitimate reasons why you don’t need a mobile responsive site. If you don’t care about 80% of potential leads, Google isn’t important to your business, or you’d rather invest in new sites each and every time a new device is launched, then ignore responsive at your own peril. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you when business starts drying up.

If you do think a mobile responsive site would be good for your business, that you have customers visiting your site from their tablets or smartphones, you care about Google’s recommendations and you want one website to serve all your customers for years to come, we can help you with that.  Our mobile responsive web design capabilities provide better design and navigation so people can easily find what they’re looking for, sitting at their desktop computers or on the go.

Having an eCommerce site that’s mobile responsive is important, because you never know when customers may have some time to kill away from their computers in a doctor’s waiting room, getting their oil changed, or at the library, when they go to your site to make a purchase.  Volusion and Bigcommerce are both responsive ready, and 1 Digital Agency can help you create a beautiful store on either of these platforms that your customers will enjoy shopping in with ease wherever they are.