More on Why You Need a Mobile Website
Further to my previous blog post on Why You Need a Mobile Website, mobile traffic is increasing exponentially for iPad, iPhone and Android. Blackberry traffic is also increasing but that is just because most companies have not adopted Apple products. But once they do, Blackberry will no longer be relevant because its poor user experience.
When someone is browsing your mobile website on their smartphone, they are expecting an entirely different experience than if they were on a laptop. Mobile visitors are usually looking for contact information or they are returning visitors who have visited your website already on laptop and are coming back to get information seen previously. Most of them are not interested in casual browsing due to slower page loading times and much smaller screen sizes.
Mobile websites are no longer just something to think about. They are very much here and if your company does not have one, then you are losing out to your competitors. Even with that being said, a recent study revealed that only 61% of Fortune 500 companies have a mobile strategy and initiatives in place. Why is this figure not 100% you ask? I think that this is because large companies have a lot of bureaucracy causing them to be slow adopters. It is ironic because now their success is impeding their growth.
If your website is not mobile-ready then soon you will be left behind. Imagine all the the people who rely solely on their smartphones and tablets because they do not have laptop access – construction workers, teachers, firefighters, police and so on. You are missing out on all that market share.
Currently, in the United States, 20% of cell phone subscribers use smart phones. This means that there is already a mobile internet market of 51 million consumers. Let’s be conservative and say that 80% of the US population has mobile internet access in two years – that is 200 million consumers – an exponential growth of 150 million in two years!
The Quick and Dirty on Making your Website Mobile-Friendly
If you do not have the budget for a full-blown mobile website then at the very least navigate through your website with an iPhone and make sure that everything can be seen correctly even if the user experience is kind of clunky. Most of your problems involve Javascript and Flash which can be easily replaced with static substitute graphics by any web developer.
Here are some characteristics of great mobile websites:
- No Flash, Javascript or pop-ups
- Very simplified pared-down version of your actual website
- Incorporate branding elements from your actual website
- Leave some breathing room or white space
- Automatically detect the mobile device and redirect mobile users
- Allow people to switch to view your full website
- Reduce number of form fields
Remember that going mobile doesn’t mean just installing and activating a generic mobile WordPress or Joomla plugin. These plugins do not incorporate your branding and sometimes render things in unexpected ways causing overlapping items and other issues.
