Why Your Mobile Friendly Site Isn't Converting

As you probably know by now, there is a difference between a mobile friendly website and a mobile optimized website. If you’re still not sure, a mobile friendly site is one that looks pretty good on a mobile device. These are websites that feature larger text and images, enough white space for clicking links, and a layout that provides the important information first, with condensed menus to clean up the clutter.

Once you have a mobile friendly site, you may believe that all your troubles are over. After all, more than 50% of online shoppers use mobile devices, so you’re set to sell. Right? Well, maybe not.

Friendly Doesn’t Equal Optimized

The problem with your mobile friendly site is that it hasn’t been optimized to encourage conversions. This helpful chart will give you an idea of why people still fail to make a purchase, even on a website that fits a mobile screen. The number one reason has nothing to do with how you optimize your mobile website, unfortunately. The only cure for purchase uncertainty is to provide more information, a better education, until the buyer is sure of his or her choice.

The rest of the deterrents, however, are directly related to how you’ve developed your mobile website. These run the gamut from loading times, navigation issues, security concerns, and frustration with typing on tiny screens. In fact, there could be several reasons your mobile site isn’t converting visitors into customers.

Let’s Fix the Problems

If you’re providing quality content on your website, then you probably have the number one reason for visitors bouncing under control. Let’s take a look at number two.

Slow Load Times

Mobile device users are much more forgiving for slow load times on phones and tablets, but they still don’t hang out very long. You have maybe three seconds on a laptop or desktop. On a mobile device, users will bounce at around ten to fifteen seconds. That’s not a lot of time.

To speed load times, there are quite a few options. First, get rid of any content that’s not necessary for mobile users. There’s no need to present the full version of your site on a mobile device, especially if your site is rather robust. Next, make sure your images and video files are optimized for mobile devices, meaning they’re as slimmed down as possible.

You can check your speeds on sites like PageSpeed or GTmetrix. The choice is yours, though we might recommend sticking with Google since they’re quickly becoming the be-all, end-all for website quality. The most important thing is simply that you do improve the load times on your site.

Bad Navigation

A small screen makes moving around on a site difficult. Large links definitely help, but they don’t fix the whole problem. If your menu system is too bulky, users will have a hard time finding the information they need. To fix this, you’ll need to strip out everything that’s not vital to your brand message. You don’t have to get rid of the menu items completely, of course. One option is to move these lesser-used links to a menu at the bottom of the page. This will leave the important items, those that lead buyers to make a purchase, in plain view where users can easily click.

If you do make changes to the navigation for the mobile version of your site, make sure all the links direct to the correct pages. Nothing is more frustrating to a user than clicking a dead link right when they’re ready to make a purchase. Yes, this requires a lot of extra work to make your website user friendly on mobile devices, but if more of those users convert to customers, the trouble is worth it.

Difficult Payment and Information Process

There’s no way around the tiny keyboards available on mobile devices. These tiny keyboards, when paired with tiny form fields, make entering personal and financial information a real pain. But you can’t process a purchase without that information, so what’s a company to do?

The easiest solution is to encourage registration. When users sign in, their information can be automatically populated on forms, including payment info. If users want to make a purchase, they’ll only need to click one or two buttons. That ease of use will certainly encourage more to convert.

Lack of Security

If you do develop a website that requires only a sign-in to make a purchase, security of information will definitely be a concern. In fact, security is a concern regardless of how your mobile site is optimized. If you want customers to follow through with a purchase, you’ll need to set their minds at ease.

The best way is to pursue the strongest encryption for personal and financial information. Then, let your users know you have that protection available. Security seals in plain sight go a long way toward easing fears. You may also include some additional information about how you plan to keep information safe at all times.

With these changes to your mobile site, you’ll be truly mobile optimized. It won’t be long before you see a difference in the number of conversions your site experiences. If you need some help making these suggestions a reality, give us a call.

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