The web designers at The Travel Web Design Agency have been designing and building websites for almost 20 years and in that time have seen many changes in their design, technologies, content and functionality.

None of these changes have been as important as making websites responsive so that they automatically twist and adjust in shape and size to fit nicely on mobile phones and tablets.

In 2015 Google themselves said that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan."

In the travel industry the importance is even higher; typically families all want to be involved and therefore sit together on the sofa browsing the Web with their mobile phone or tablet looking for their perfect holiday.

This isn’t limited to families either; groups of friends may sit in a coffee shop or pub making use of the free Wi-Fi and business trips can be planned during the daily commute.

It’s no longer the case of checking that your travel website works on mobile devices, it’s a priority that it works perfectly on them. In fact, if it isn’t already, it’s likely that soon the case will be that mobile users should be the top priority of a travel website, with desktops and laptops coming in second.

At the very least you can check if your website is mobile-friendly using Google’s free tool:

www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

But we’d urge every tour operator and travel agents to go one step further; put yourself in your user’s shoes and see how easy your website is to navigate through on a mobile phone (and book if you have this facility), it needs to be effortless with no compromises.

If your travel website isn’t mobile friendly it isn’t as effective, you could be literally throwing away half of your customers. But don’t fret, there are exceptions but many websites can have this functionality fitted retrospectively, you don’t always need to start again.

If you want to find out more and want one of our team to give you some advice or prices, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at The Travel Web Design Agency.