I was in a meeting with a client this week about their plans to redesign their website. He wondered if the organization should invest in responsive design. Wha?“Hold on,” I said. “I don’t think going mobile-friendly is optional these days.” But, he argued, responsive design adds to the project budget and his site doesn’t currently get much mobile traffic.
It’s true. Responsive design can increase the total cost of a redesign by 5-20% of the total cost. BUT:
- Last week, Google rolled out its mobile-friendly update, which significantly boosts the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search. And as I blogged last month, every organization should care about search, which means caring how Google ranks your website.
- You can be losing customers. 27% of consumers will leave a site if it is not mobile-optimized (ExactTarget, 2014 Mobile Behavior Report).
- Your mobile traffic will increase. Across ALL of our clients, mobile traffic increased dramatically within six months after a website goes mobile. Basically, if you build it, they will come… promise.
- Our clients that have made their email templates responsive have seen an increase in their open rates. This doesn’t surprise us since mobile accounts for more than half of email opens (Litmus).
So, what are you waiting for? If your website isn’t responsive, it’s time and it’s not optional.
