Do businesses need a mobile optimised website?

Published: 07/05/2021 By Paul Bauer - Marketing & Communications Manager

Mobile internet traffic is increasing rather rapidly - In the first quarter of 2021, mobile traffic to websites accounted for over 54% of all global traffic - that's the highest it's ever been!

To be precise, according to Statista, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 54.8% of global website traffic in the first quarter of 2021. It had already been consistently hovering around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017; but we're now seeing a concerted shift in website user interactions that are beginning to usurp traditional desktop-based websites, and this is something that every business - especially property agents - should be taking seriously.

Website Traffic from Mobile Devices: It's Growing for Estate Agents

Indeed, looking at some of our customers and how their sites are accessed, this fact doesn't come as a surprise. Back as early as 2014, there were already examples of estate agents experiencing over 40% of their total visitors reaching them via a mobile device. In addition, those using our estate agent CRM software were also experiencing a demonstrable shift from desktop to mobile traffic, and an average of 33% of traffic going to our customers sites was via a mobile device.

One of the most common reasons for traffic from mobile devices increasing was that we found those agents who were actively advertising in the local community - such as putting up lots of sales boards for example - were getting more mobile internet traffic than those who didn't. More recently, and despite much of the UK being under some sort of lockdown for most of 2020, this trend seems to have continued

Our thoughts are that people are seeing estate agent boards and reaching into their pockets to do a quick Google search on the property or the selling agent - makes sense, really! Also, consider the amount of people who have been looking to leave the big cities during the recent lockdowns. We'd bet a pretty penny there's been huge numbers of potential customers lounging at home and whimsically scrolling on their phones looking at potential new homes... and why switch to a desktop device when your average smart phone will do everything you need online and much, much more?

So, we know that more people than ever are using their mobiles to visit websites - but do businesses and estate agencies really need a mobile-optimised site?  

Short answer: YES

You might be thinking that if all you need to do is display smart images to support property sales on your website, then you might not need a mobile-optimised site as phones and tablets are pretty good at resizing those. This is mostly true; however, if you have text content on your site (which you most likely will) then you'll definitely need a site that's optimised for mobile devices. This will mean that all aspects of your site works just as well on a mobile device as it would on a traditional desktop. Plus, remember that a site not built with mobile optimisation in mind may display very differently to what you'd expect -and often not in a good way, wither...

Think about it: if your site doesn't work well on a mobile device, then is there really much point in having a website at all? A hard to navigate and non-optimised mobile site is probably creating a huge barrier to lead generation, which could mean a company is missing out on potential business. At Webdadi, we believe that websites help our customers make money by helping them portray a quality brand and by encouraging potential clients to call them. This means it’s a good idea to make it as easy as possible for a potential client to contact you.

Overall, our view is that all companies - estate agents in particular - need to have a mobile optimised website. Those that don't? Well, they're probably missing out...