Almost all of the UK’s top advertisers now have a mobile optimised site. New research by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK shows that 47 of the country’s top 50 advertisers either have a separate mobile site or use responsive web design.
The IAB assessed the quality of these sites, based on seven key mobile user experience measures:
- Site load speeds using Google Page Speed Insights tool
- Site search is prominent at all times
- Menu is short and concise
- The site exploits mobile-specific functionality e.g. GPS store locator/click to call
- Product images are expandable/easily viewed on a mobile device
- Data capture forms are optimised for mobile (list options used/relevant keypads provided)
- The overall look and feel is built for mobile
Nine of the top ten highest rated mobile optimised sites were retail sites, led by Harveys Furniture Store and Very.co.uk, followed by Asda, Tesco and Boots. Rounding off the top ten were Amazon.co.uk, Oak Furniture Land, Argos, Morrisons and Asda.
Overall, the audit revealed a fairly even split between mobile sites and responsive web design, but interestingly the separate mobile sites scored higher across five of the seven mobile experience measures.
“This highlights the need for those advertisers approaching mobile with responsive web design to think differently about the content they serve on mobile devices, and pull in the unique functionality that makes mobile such an engaging device,” the IAB’s Mike Reynolds said.
It’s so important to provide the best possible mobile experience because consumers are more likely to visit and spend time on a site with good mobile optimisation. And the reverse is also true: research by SessionCam shows that 27% of mobile users will simply navigate away from an unoptimised site.
With most major retailers in the UK now geared up for the mobile age, it’s clear that those without a mobile optimised site risk losing out to their competitors.
Tags: mobile site, mobile retail, UK advertisers, mobile optimisation
