If you’ve got a website, there are certain things you’ll want to do to make sure it’s fit for purpose. Make sure it’s got a fast load speed time, UX friendly, and free from bugs or annoying error messages. But one of the most important things of all to check is whether or not your site is mobile friendly.

There are so many reasons mobile testing is important, and that’s what this guide is going to get into today. Read on to learn how you can best measure mobile usability and why your website needs mobile first responsive design.

It’s What the People Want

Since they first became widely available to the public in the mid-2000s, the popularity of smartphones has flourished, growing year on year. While it was once the case that desktops were how the majority of people accessed websites, recent studies show that this is no longer true.

That’s right, research shows us that over 50% of all web traffic now comes from mobile phones. This is huge news. It means that you need to change the way you’re thinking about websites and about website testing.

If the majority of visitors to your website are accessing it via their smartphones you need to be sure it’s going to look good when viewed this way.

It’s What Google Wants

Have you ever heard of technical SEO? It’s a branch of the digital marketing principle of search engine optimization, and it refers to the technical aspects of your site that will get it to rank higher on search engine results pages (or SERPs).

Why are we telling you this? Because Google itself has come out and said that it penalizes any sites that aren’t optimized for mobile. That’s how important the search engine giant believes mobile accessibility to be for a website.

If you want to make sure your website has the chance to be seen by as many people as possible, then making it accessible for the biggest group of internet users and the biggest search engine on the planet both seem like good places to start.

What Is Usability Testing?

Even after all of the above evidence in its favor, you might be worried about the extra time and effort involved in testing your site for mobile usability. But the fact is you needn’t be.

Mobile usability testing is woven seamlessly into the testing process. With the use of tools like a mobile-friendly website tester, it’s a complete breeze.

Before you even get to the testing, though, you’ll need to begin by specifying in your web design brief that mobile responsive design is a priority. Work with a company that will offer these web development services and that will share in your vision.

Mobile Testing: A Step Not to Skip

Mobile testing is a step in the web development process that experts, your users, and Google all agree is vitally important. If you want to make a website that will represent your company in the best way possible, this is what you need to do. If you’re looking for more tips on website design, check the rest of our content now.