There’s really no doubt that the Internet has reached the mobile-age, with an ever increasing number of people going online through their mobile phones, touch pads and smart phones.
It’s unbelievable how many businesses haven’t adapted with the times, and still don’t have a mobile friendly website.
The statistics demonstrate that around the world businesses are lagging behind in the uptake of effective mobile websites, even though the mobile web is expanding considerably.
Even some of the biggest E-Commerce sites haven’t kept up to date with this development, with websites that aren’t mobile friendly at all.
Mentioned below are the reasons that your Melbourne Fl web design should be responsive and optimized for mobile devices.
Why invest in a mobile-friendly website?
The Business Insider article on the subject contains a graph which clearly displays the incredibly telling figures for global internet usage on Desktop/Laptop Computers vs. Mobile Devices. The data shows that mobile internet usage is en route to overtake laptop and desktop internet use by 2014, which is why web design could be the right tool for you. The other vital statistic for consideration is that 50% of local searches are already made from mobile devices.
Other important figures for consideration:
- At the moment, there’s 4 billion mobile phones used across the world
- More than 1 billion of these are smart phones
- Mobile devices account for 50% of local searches
- Over 85% of mobile web users use the device while they watch TV
- 1/3 of the 700m Facebook users use Facebook Mobile
- 1/2 of the 170m+ Twitter users use Twitter Mobile
When these stats are taken in to account, it’s hard to understand why more sites aren’t yet mobile-friendly. Businesses that have developed an effective mobile site have seen tremendous growth in their mobile traffic, as has been seen with Twitter, Facebook and countless other websites.
What makes a mobile website friendly?
A mobile-friendly site doesn’t simply mean that it’s accessible from a mobile device. The whole site needs to be tailor made, specifically with significantly smaller screens in mind. That means that the navigation must be made easy with bigger buttons for touch-screen devices, and the information and content displayed has to be of high relevance for the user – something which web design considers as a specialty.
The eBay mobile site is a great example of a well made, mobile-friendly site. It utilizes simplicity, ease of navigation and the utmost relevance in order to create the best mobile browsing experience for users. Those are the features that every site has to adopt for their mobile counterparts. Viewers from mobile devices don’t want to have to spend an eternity hunting for what they need.
If the user is provided with a quick and easy viewing experience, they’ll be sure to come back on their mobile device. If the overall experience is clunky and finding the relevant content and information is difficult, then it’s likely that they’ll never return.
Be the leader, not just a follower
There’s been a significant amount of research that’s gone into the total % of sites that are mobile-friendly, with different results due to different classifications of a “mobile-friendly” website in each study.
However, the typical results have shown that only 2-10% of sites have a specific, mobile user version of the site. So, what are the implications for this on your business? For a start, it’s almost a certainty that most of your competitors don’t offer a mobile-friendly website, meaning that you’ve got a massive opportunity to get ahead of the game.
Don’t wait for your competitors to come to the realization that they need a mobile site to maximize their traffic and sales. Leading the way in your online marketing efforts will put you ahead of your competition, clearly identifying your business among consumers as an innovator, as opposed to a follower.
