Zenpo Software is continuously pushing the envelope when it comes to web development. Every year, there is a new trend that changes the web development landscape, and this year is no exception. There is a seismic shift going on as consumers are ditching their laptops for mobile devices, while businesses realize that they can let automation take the place of manual work. Here are three of the trends that we will see more of this year.
- Responsive website design. In 2015, only 35% of website traffic happened on mobile devices. By the end of 2019, more than 52% of traffic was mobile. It isn’t surprising that last year, Google announced a shift to mobile-first indexing, which means that it will rank mobile versions of websites ahead of desktop versions. Responsive website design will allow website owners to have just one version for both mobile and desktop, instead of different ones for different platforms.
- Chatbots and built-in customer service. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2020, 85% of customer interactions will happen without human involvement. COVID-19, along with the closure of contact centers, will only hasten the timelines for this shift. Chatbots are becoming smarter by the second, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and big data. In fact, we expect chatbots to be able to predict what a user would like to buy even before they click on “Add to cart”, based on previous purchase histories.
- Voice search optimization. As of 2019, 19% of iOS users use Siri once a day, and by 2020, 50% of all Google searches will be done with voice instead of text. A recent study discovered that 40% of users surveyed claim that voice-activated services are essential to their daily lives. This means that if your website isn’t optimized for voice searches, it will be pushed down the search rankings in the near future. Fortunately, voice search optimization is easier than you’d expect. You can add a voice recognition API to your site to make searches more convenient.