Page experience can be the deciding factor when it comes to digital success for your business. With the huge uptake and prioritisation of mobile devices, page experience must translate well across multiple platforms – desktop, tablet and mobile – as well as linking into any apps or other off-site experiences. In recent years, Google has moved to mobile-first indexing, showing their dedication to mobile platforms into the future as the number of mobile users continues to grow. So, should businesses prioritise a mobile-first user experience?
Over the last twelve months, the growth in digital access and usage has outstripped even the least conservative estimates, predominantly driven by the impact of Covid-19 and the sudden importance for contactless services. The United States particularly has seen over 10 years’ worth of mobile up-take and progress in only a few months, according to new data from McKinsey. Whilst this growth has predominantly been driven by necessity, and many will fear a drop-off once relative normality is restored, businesses with good experiences that have invested in their digital offerings across all platforms should see great user retention. For many users, an exceptional digital experience will be an improvement over other options – particularly where in-store experiences have been neglected or failed to modernise adequately to match.
This is the basis of success for companies like Amazon, that primarily exist as a replacement to brick and mortar stores – offering a shopping experience with comparable costs, simple and well executed digital access, and few of the pitfalls of traditional shopping. In a time of monolithic Highstreet brands with cookie-cutter experiences across all their stores, businesses that can offer something better online that can be easily tailored via user choices are winning out.
Alongside greater uptake of mobile services, we are also seeing greater interactivity within campaigns and content than ever before, all of which allow brands to craft a unique tone of voice and presentation of their business exclusively for digital audiences. However, website experiences must be able to match the expectations generated by these campaigns, as well as being a vital part of their success user expectations must be matched to ensure that a campaign delivers positively! Campaigns that allow users to join in now rarely involve platforms outside of Mobile, capitalizing on the expanded accessibility and ease of use of mobile devices, as well as benefiting from other heavily mobile-orientated businesses to amplify themselves.
Even Google is focusing on updating their mobile experience! Not content with switching to mobile-first indexing, Google are starting to further prioritise mobile experiences for their users – recently updating their design and interface to make information clearer and easier to read, with the aim of improving focus and the speed of information finding.
The online space is subject to a huge amount of competition from external sources, as more and more companies move their content to bespoke apps or rely on social media platforms to deliver experiences for their users; In this arena, an optimised mobile experience is essential even if your only digital touch-point is your website, and with the (somewhat forced) shift in behaviour over the last 12 months, it seems like Mobile will continue to be the most important platform for businesses.
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