According to the Digital Marketing Report Q4 2014, a quarterly digital marketing analysis produced by search marketing agency Merkle|RKG, mobile devices are now delivering 42% of the organic search traffic across the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing.

The report also notes that mobile organic traffic grew 54% in the fourth quarter of 2014 from the same time period one year ago.  In addition, more than half (52%) of all visits to social media sites are from mobile devices (smart phones and tablets).

To anyone paying attention to consumer habits these days, this should come as no surprise.  Nor should it be any surprise that you are missing out on a big chunk of traffic for your website if you don’t optimize it for mobile.

Here are some more reasons you need to go mobile with your online marketing presence:

Mobile users are different.  Mobile users want information in quick, digestible bites so your mobile design should match how they will be using your site.  For more law firms, it is essential to provide an easy way to contact you — a click-to-call button that the user needs to merely tap to initiate a phone call.  You want to include essential information only on your mobile site, and keep the design simple.  Good load speed is critical — 57% of mobile users will abandon your site if they have to wait three seconds for it to load, according to research by Strangeloop Networks.

SEO.  Search engines are now penalizing sites that are not optimized for mobile, so you could see your search rankings suffer if you don’t have a mobile site that works on iOS and Android platforms (smart phones and tablets).

Lead conversion.  Mobile users are much more inclined to take action than desktop users, so your calls-to-action should be highly conspicuous on your mobile site.  If you are using email marketing for lead conversion, realize that 26% of all email is opened on a mobile phone and 11% is opened on a tablet.

Engagement.  Mobile users accessing a standard website will not engage when they have to pinch or zoom to find your content.  If you provide them with a good mobile experience, they are much more likely to return to your site later on a desktop (Google reports that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal).

Loss to competition.  Google says that 41% of mobile users will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience!