The smartphone follows your client like a shadow
The smartphone is sometimes seen as an intrusion in our lives. Take a look around and you’ll realize it’s everywhere. At restaurants, we “Instagram” our food. On public transit or in cafés, we browse our favourite sites or read the news. Even at home, the device is rarely far from its owner. Who doesn’t use a bathroom break to check Facebook? Like it or not, mobile phone use is firmly rooted in our daily habits.
Think of mobile devices as your clientele’s best friends: people who don’t own a smartphone or tablet are a dying breed. In Quebec, the shift to mobile is no myth: 66% of adults aged 18 to 54 own one of these devices, and that percentage keeps rising among younger generations. Take just 10 years off the age range studied, to 18 to 44, and 80% of the population owns a smartphone, a tablet or both!
Google will become your best friend if you get to know it
A responsive website is an excellent way to boost your “PageRank” effortlessly, since Google favours responsive websites on two counts. First, because responsive websites have been ranked higher than non-responsive sites since 2012, and second, because your SEO benefits from centralizing incoming visitors on a single page. More visitors mean better rankings; better rankings, more visitors.
Your clients no longer look in specialized directories when they need a service: they ask the people around them for advice on social media or use search engines. Don’t miss out on potential clients: according to one study, 88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on their mobile device call or visit the business directly within 24 hours of their search.
Don’t forget that phone numbers are usually clickable if the device used is a smartphone or a tablet with an app that lets you make phone calls. Contacting your business with a single click — by phone or by email — makes your calls to action more appealing, and all the more engaging for your clients because they require little effort on their part.
Nothing is perfect, but…
If your healthcare company already has a website as a virtual storefront, the cost of a redesign may hold you back. However, once the system is in place, the costs are lower than if you choose to build two versions of your website: one optimized for mobile devices and the other for computers.
Responsive web design does have a few minor drawbacks: since your web platform exists in a single version, you may be tempted to optimize it for display on a computer screen. However, don’t forget that even on computers, you need to account for the variety of screen sizes and the differences between web browsers to ensure optimal display. By taking this into account when designing your website, your web design company can avoid elements that are hard to adapt and offer your clientele a quality user experience.
Modern web design, another word for “almost perfect”
By choosing a responsive website for your healthcare company, you opt for a modern image and make it easier for your online presence to rank in organic search, while getting the most out of your investment by concentrating it on a single version of your website. Hard to beat!
