“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” That was Steve Jobs’ introduction to the iPhone about 8 years ago. It has proven prophetic. Smartphones have changed everything – from the way we connect with people and businesses, to the way we consume the information we care about, to the way we organize our daily lives. It is the fastest mass-adopted technology in human history. And because approximately half of all search traffic is now from mobile devices, it has forced a paradigm shift in web design.
You see, before mobile devices, websites were typically built for 20-30 inch screens. And you could get away with it, because people really just used work desktops or laptops. But those websites didn’t scale very well to screens that were only 3 or 4 inches. It was a pain to navigate, you had to pinch to zoom to find what you needed, and frustration caused very heavy bounce rates. And so some very smart engineers did what smart engineers do best – they made the problem obsolete.
What we now have is responsive website design. A website that is “responsive” re-arranges itself based upon the size of the screen it’s being displayed on. That’s a really incredible thing to be able to do. And it’s very important, because your ability to begin relationships with people on your website is directly related to the experience they have on your website.
The importance of mobile design is only growing, and is unlikely to stop. We are just becoming more and more comfortable with using our pocket devices for our data consumption. They are becoming more sophisticated, user friendly and essential to our daily lives. Because of that, there is a tremendous award to offering prospective clients a truly great experience on your veterinary website through their smartphone.
In fact, websites that are not responsive (or don’t have a dedicated mobile version) are punished in Google’s mobile search rankings. You can check to make sure your website is mobile-optimized here: Mobile Friendly Test
The only constant in this world is change. Undoubtedly there are more paradigm shifts to come. We’ll do our best to make sure you are prepared for them.
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