Mobile in 2015: Why Your Website Must Be Responsive

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Mobile in 2015: Why

Your Website Must Be

Responsive

Ali Amirrezvani

CEO and Co-Founder DealerOn, Inc. Derwood, Maryland

Ali@DealerOn.com

2 The views and opinions presented in this educational program and any accompanying handout material are those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of NADA. The speakers are not NADA representatives, and their presence on the program is not a NADA endorsement or sponsorship of the speaker or the speaker’s company, product, or services.

Nothing that is presented during this educational program is intended as legal advice, and this program may not address all federal, state, or local regulatory or other legal issues raised by the subject matter it addresses. The purpose of the program is to help dealers improve the effectiveness of their business practices. The information

presented is also not intended to urge or suggest that dealers adopt any specific practices or policies for their dealerships, nor is it intended to encourage concerted action among competitors or any other action on the part of dealers that would in any manner fix or stabilize the price or any element of the price of any good or service.

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Mobile in 2015: Why Your Website

Must Be Responsive

Workshop Synopsis

In 2014, more than 50 percent of all traffic to a typical dealership website is from a mobile device, and within the next 12 months, mobile local search traffic will surpass local desktop search traffic. Having a mobile-optimized website is critical for a successful dealership’s digital presence.

Google has officially endorsed Responsive Website Design as the standard for handling mobile and desktop traffic because it’s better for SEO,

improves customer experience (and conversion), and makes dealership sites easier for Google to crawl and correctly index. Responsive Website Design is a technology that allows a website to automatically resize based on the resolution of the device trying to access it.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion in the automotive space about what Responsive Design is and why it’s superior to Adaptive, Seamless, and Mobile sites. Many believe it is a “scam” to get dealers to pay more for new technology, it’s slower and un-optimized, that it is too hard to manage, or that it is worse for SEO.

Time and time again, Responsive Website Design has proven its benefits, so much so, that Google is publicly endorsing it. It is the future of website design across the entire worldwide web.

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Learning Objectives:

After attending this workshop you will be able to:

1. Explain the importance of providing a mobile-optimized experience to mobile-website visitors.

2. Identify the different mobile technologies and analyze the pros and cons of each.

3. Discuss the benefits of using responsive web technology within four distinct categories (Search Engine Optimization, Website Conversion, Ease of Management, and Technology Evolution). 4. Explain why responsive website design has been recommended

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Topic #1 – A Look at the Mobile Landscape

Slides 3-6

Within the next 12 months, mobile local search traffic will surpass local

desktop traffic.

US Local Search Market: Mobile vs. Desktop

Dealerships get most of their traffic from Google (55 percent) and those visits are increasingly coming from mobile devices. Adults are using the Internet on their phone 30 percent more than on a desktop device.

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Topic #2 – Available Mobile Website Technologies

Slides 8-10

Your consumers do not care which mobile technology your dealership is using; they care about being able to accomplish what they want to

accomplish quickly and efficiently.

When considering the technology of your mobile website, keep in mind the following criteria:

 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 Conversion

 Technology Evolution

 Ease of Management

There are at least three different technology paths for mobile dealership websites:

 Multi-URL

 Adaptive

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Multi-URL – Content is served off of two different URLs, the main website

URL and a mobile variation. For example, m.site.com or site.com/mobi/. This is the traditional approach of many web providers.

Adaptive Design – Different HTML and content are served to mobile and

desktop visitors, all running from the same URL.

Responsive Design – The same content and same HTML are served to all

visitors from the same URL. The design and layout of the content adjusts to the screen resolution of each device.

Drawbacks to each technology:

 Multi-URL – Serving content off of a secondary mobile domain (URL) typically results in double the load time. This is a result of having to conduct a DNS lookup, making the connection, and downloading data on the original domain, and again on the secondary mobile domain. This often leads to a loss of website visitors.

 Adaptive – User-Agent Detection, the process used to display the proper content and HTML for the viewing device, depends on website providers to identify and code for each possible device. Most website providers utilize three versions (desktop, tablet, and mobile) to cover thousands of device screen resolutions.

 Responsive – Designing websites using this technology can be labor-intensive and involves a lot of trial and error for a website provider.

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Illustration of the Differences Between Adaptive and Responsive

Notes: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

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Topic #3 – Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Slides 11-27

Google recommends responsive website design for multiple reasons,

including the search engine optimization benefits.

On a responsive website, Google’s site crawlers only need to crawl your pages once because there is only one set of code. This is the most efficient use of Google’s resources, indirectly helping Google index more of a site’s content. Compare this to adaptive sites, which require crawling of each configuration of your website (desktop, tablet, and mobile).

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Social media channels drive traffic through content sharing and linking.

Roughly 70 percent of Facebook and 90 percent of Twitter usage is on a mobile device. When your dealership receives inbound links from these social media platforms, they will most likely be mobile links.

Using a uniform set of URLs helps build inbound link equity for each piece of content on your website. This improves organic search results and influences search rankings.

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A well-designed and optimized responsive site typically results in a better user experience, reducing your dealership website’s bounce rate. This is a critical component of Google’s SEO algorithm and directly impacts search rankings.

Beginning in October 2014, Google has been testing how to alert

consumers to which websites are mobile-friendly, and which aren’t. If your dealership website isn’t mobile-friendly, the chances of a potential

customer clicking through will be greatly reduced.

Notes: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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Topic #4 – Website Conversion

Slides 18-30

Usability is crucial to website conversion for a mobile user.

When anything prevents the user from easily doing what they want,

bounce rates skyrocket and conversion rates tank.

According to KISSmetrics:

 40 percent of mobile users will completely abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

 79 percent of shoppers that are dissatisfied with a website’s performance are unlikely to buy from the same site.

 Three seconds of waiting decreases customer satisfaction by 16 percent.

Responsive websites load consistently faster than either adaptive or multi-url websites when viewed on a mobile device.

When multi-url or adaptive designs are used, it is common for the mobile version of the web page to either not be created or not be optimized properly.

Responsive website design ensures users will see the most relevant design of your site, every time.

With a responsive design, the aesthetic is maintained across all devices, but the presentations are customized to best fit the usability requirements of each device. Calls to action and site layout are optimized for each device, leading to an increase in overall website conversion.

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Topic #5 – Ease of Management

Slides 31-32

Having a responsive platform makes content management simpler for a dealership over the long term. Your dealership must consider the long-term cost of ownership for multi-url/adaptive platforms versus a responsive

platform. On a non-responsive platform, your dealership/agency, PPC vendor, content writers, and SEO agency will have to create an “optimized” version of your site (handheld, tablet, and desktop), doubling, tripling, or quadrupling your work (and cost).

Topic #6- Technology Evolution

Slides 33-34

In 2014, an average dealership website received traffic from over 500 unique screen resolutions. Wearable devices will become mainstream technology in the near future, not to mention the influx of new televisions, phones, tablets, and video-game consoles. The only realistic way to provide an optimized experience for each and every device and screen resolution is through a responsive website platform.

Notes:

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Topic #7 – What Can a Dealer Do?

Slides 35-37

If your dealership cannot switch to a responsive website platform, there are things you can do to optimize your mobile website experience.

Design Pages for Conversion

 Ensure your mobile pages (especially landing pages) have clear calls-to-action, are easy to use, and load quickly.

Rel Canonical Tags

 If your dealership is on an adaptive website platform, make sure you are correctly using rel canonical tags. See

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en and talk to your website provider for more information.

Notes: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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Takeaways

1. Your dealership must utilize responsive technology to deliver the best mobile user experience and effectively compete in the marketplace.

2. Local mobile search traffic will surpass local desktop search traffic in the next 12 months. These visitors are impatient and demand a quality web experience…or they will take their business elsewhere.

3. Website visitors don’t care about the type of technology your dealership uses. They care about receiving the best experience possible.

4. Responsive website design is recommended by Google. 5. You must evaluate your mobile website technology with the

following four criteria:

a. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) b. Website Conversion c. Ease of Management d. Technology Evolution My Takeaways: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________