Having a Mobile Website Is More Important Than You Think

The world of Internet access has expanded dramatically over the past few years. It used to be that you needed to be sitting at a desk in order to surf your favorite websites, but those days are behind us. With the development of WiFi, 3G and 4G being accessible from almost anywhere in the country (and in most developed countries for that matter) the importance of having a mobile site has increased greatly.

More and more people are using mobile devices, tablets, and smart phones in order to stay connected while they are on the move, at work, or out on the town. The creation of smartphones and the ability to read emails, play mobile games, and shop online right from your phone has literally revolutionized internet access for millions of people.

So the question remains- why does my company need a mobile website? Most modern websites are designed to be loaded onto a desktop or laptop monitor, which are generally over 17 inches. The average smartphone’s screen is 3.5 inches and sometimes even smaller. While the website may look perfectly fine on a large screen, it can become hard to read and navigate for people who view the website on their smartphone. Also, the amount of data that a website requires to load can cause a smartphone to stall or slow down. This can increase your bounce rate and can lose customers before they even get a chance to browse through your site.

Luckily, you are now able to design mobile-friendly sites that feature a simplistic design so  they load faster. Mobile websites often have big buttons for easy navigation, simplified text areas, and are adapted to look great on smaller screens. Your original company website will load regularly on PCs and Macs, however it will recognize a mobile device by its browser and will load the mobile friendly version just for those types of devices.

Here is a look at some statistics on mobile users:

• In 2012, 115.8 million users had 3G smartphones.
• Nearly 700,000 Android devices are activated each and every day.
• For this year, trends have predicted that more people will use the internet on their mobile devices than from their computer.
• 68% of mobile users in the US made a purchase from their mobile device in December 2012.

Just from looking at the statistics alone, it’s hard to deny that having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever in order to maintain a successful business – especially if the business is only available online! Even if you are looking for local attention, Mobile marketing made it easy for you to engage local search maps and directories to make it easy for customers to find your store. If you enhance these tools (like Google Maps) with a mobile-friendly website that includes a page for ‘About Us’, ‘Find Us’, ‘Hours of Operation’, and ‘Coupons’, you’ll be able to turn local traffic into customers.

Websites who have caught on to the mobile website trend early generally perform better than their counterparts. Their websites are optimized to load quickly and will look good and function properly on any sized browser so customers can engage more with the company’s website.  happy, and helps your business by allowing them to engage more with your website.