Why Do I Need A Mobile Version of My Website?

Many business owners have been asking themselves "Why do I need a mobile version of my website?". Many of them are coming to the realization that in order to keep up with the current trend, it's necessary for them to get a mobile-focused website, Some have already set up these types of sites to get a leg up on their competition, but the vast majority of them have not and are losing out on valuable buyer traffic.

In a recent conversation with a local restaurant, a business owner asked me: "Why do I need a mobile site?" and also asked why he needed to optimize it for the search engines. He was under the impression that SEO just happened, and that people arriving at his regular site via a cellphone could just zoom in and read about his services. This is a common misconception.

With mobile friendly sites, small is beautiful. Mobile devices focus on a small area of screen, so the most important content really has to be at the very top of the page. SEO calls for the best content to be "above the fold", and the fold is significantly higher on a mobile device. Look at your webpage on a cell phone, tablet and other device to ensure that what you want to see really is visible where you expect it to show up. If you can setup your mobile site on one page, that's the best method. If you have more than one page, having an easy-to-follow navigation system is the next best thing.

Look at these statistics published by Compuware and Google Internal Data:

1 out of every 3 mobile searches are local searches for businesses
60% of mobile users expect a site to load in 3 seconds or less.
57% of mobile would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site.
40% have turned to a competitors site after a bad mobile experience.

Just because it's a cell phone, doesn't mean people don't want to buy using it. mCommerce is a great way to allow people to shop on your website over their mobile device. This service is relatively new, so including it on your website can open you up to a massive audience who are ready to buy, but can't find many websites which cater to their needs.

So, if you're asking yourself why do I need a mobile version of my website - think about increased revenues and better conversion ratios. Be sure and choose a professional company to help you implement this on your website to ensure it's done correctly.

Most people pay to download any type of web-related content onto their phone based on the amount of data they download per month, so large pages will be avoided. Keep all of your mobile website pages to 20kb or smaller to ensure that customers don't pay an arm and a leg just to shop on your site.

Keep your navigation simple and obvious. Your mobile site doesn't need to be as complicated as your main site, so focus on the main pages such as Contact, Locations, Products, Customer Support and News. Think about being a customer yourself and then question what type of information you would be seeking if you were on the road somewhere and pulled up your mobile site on your cell phone.

Mobile technology is extremely new, so the products available for creating and improving a mobile website are changing every day. Keep track of new technological advancements to enhance your site is a great way to keep a leg up on the competition.

Who is most likely to be searching for your company on their mobile device? If you have brick-and-mortar stores, you should be thinking local. Include local keywords in your SEO phrases to target the local audience and bring them in the door. If your website is online-only, consider which areas of the world are most likely to purchase from your website based on demographics and your website statistics and use those terms in your keyphrases as well.

The amount of people surfing the web on their smart phone is seriously outpacing conventional browsing. If you keep your customer in mind, you should have no problem building an attractive mobile website which boosts your sales and helps to retain and increase your customer base.