Is your sports website optimized for mobile?
Better yet, is it responsive? Given the growth of the mobile web, responsive web design is a best practice that helps you provide users with an optimal experience, regardless of whether they are browsing your site on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
Here are three ways to check your website for mobile friendliness:
1. Open your website on your phone. How readable is your copy? Can you navigate your site easily?
2. Open your website on your computer and re-size your browser to a narrow, mobile phone-sized width. How does your site respond?
3. Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. Hopefully you'll see the result: "Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly."
Why does it matter for youth sports sites?
Because Google says so. In April 2015, Google expanded its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will significantly impact mobile searches worldwide. In addition, it will be easier for users to find more relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
Mobile usage is now over 60% of all web traffic. comScore wrote about mobile internet usage overtaking desktop as the most used digital platform. In the article, the author notes:
- Smartphone usage is up 394 percent, and tablet usage is up a whopping 1,721 percent as these platforms now combine to account for 60 percent of digital media time spent.
- Mobile-only internet usage is also becoming more common, driven predominantly by Millennials, of which 21 percent are no longer using desktop computers to go online.
- The 55-years-and-older consumer segment is actually the fastest growing faction of mobile users.
Check your stats!
Still not convinced? Be sure to check your site usage with Google Analytics to better understand your own mobile traffic. It's easy:
- STEP 1: Log into your site's Google Analytics account and head over to the Reporting page.
- STEP 2: On the left-hand navigation, click Audience > Mobile > Overview, and you'll get a report of your traffic.
- STEP 3: Select the "pie chart view" in the upper right-hand corner, and you'll see a clear breakdown of the percentage of users that have viewed your site on mobile and tablet browsers.
Next Steps...
If your sports site's mobile experience isn't great, our white paper, Taking a Responsive Approach: Responsive Web Design can help you jump start your journey to create a mobile-friendly, responsive website. Download the free white paper to get started.
Or contact us directly. We're here to help. We can show you how our sports websites stack up.