Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Site Now
Technology is always evolving and with more consumers using smartphones, laptops and tablets to search the web, it’s important to have a mobile website. Even though your regular website is accessible on mobile devices, it probably doesn’t look very good and is very hard to navigate on a mobile device. Just as companies realized, when the internet came about, they needed a website, many businesses are coming to the realization, they also need a mobile website.
The Difference Between a Standard Website and a Mobile Website
The major difference between the two is how they display on a mobile device. If a company has a mobile website, it’s created specifically to display easy to navigate options on any mobile device. Graphics are created to display properly and the user doesn’t have to zoom in to figure out what something says. The display resolution for a mobile website is much smaller than a regular website. This helps your site display in the right format for the much smaller screen most mobile devices use.
Looking at a mobile website compared to a standard website on a smart phone is the easiest way to see the difference. On the mobile website, it’s easy to read all the text, find links and navigate the site. However, without a mobile site, your standard site will show up and unless the user knows where to go already, it can be very difficult to find the right links, pages and information.
Four Main Advantages of Mobile Websites
1. User Experience
The most important advantage you gain from the use of a mobile website is the experience you pass on to the user. Making your site fit the screen of mobile devices makes it so much easier on the user. They don’t need to zoom in to read anything and finding the links for purchasing, ordering, contact information and anything else of important becomes very easy.
2. Speed
Regular websites tend to take forever to load on mobile devices because of the larger graphics and content. You don’t run into this issue with a mobile website because it’s designed specifically for these smaller devices. The graphics are smaller and the sites load much faster than your standard website.
3. Improved Search Ranking
Google and many other search engines give priority to mobile optimized websites. Since many consumers search on their smartphones and tablets, it’s important for Google to display results able to easily be viewed on these devices. With a mobile website, you gain search engine optimization benefits, which can lead to more customers finding your site instead of your competitor’s site.
4. User Engagement
With a mobile website, you can use mobile specific features, such as a “tap to call” or a location-based map. This allows you to engage the user and make it more convenient for their use. If you want more people to contact your business, using a mobile site will get the job done simply because you can use a “call to action” specific to these users.
Statistics Backing Up Mobile Website Usage
It comes as no surprise, more consumers are using their mobile devices to find restaurants, retail businesses and many other local businesses every year. The numbers are still climbing as more people purchase smartphones and templates. Here are a few statistics to help you understand the important of using a mobile website.
- Over HALF of all local searches happen on a mobile device
- Over 60% of those finding your business through a local search call your business and 59% actually visit the business
- Experts estimate, more people will use a mobile device to access the internet than a PC in 2013
- By 2015, many estimate there will be at least one mobile device for every person on the planet
- Experts project, tablets will make up over 20% of the mobile market in 2013
- Three out of every five mobile users expect your mobile site to load in under 3 seconds
Is a Mobile Website a Smart Investment?
Considering the statistics above, if you run a local business offering a service or product, you cannot afford to go without a mobile website any longer. Without one, you’re losing customers and missing out on opportunities to grow your business. Just as creating a regular website, when used properly, can help your business grow, so can a mobile website.
Imagine if 100 potential customers a month searched for your business on their mobile device. Without a mobile website, most of these people will simply look for a competitor and you will miss out on all the potential opportunities. With a mobile website, 60 out of the 100 people will at least call your business and over 30 of those people will come through your doors.
Without a mobile website, you could miss out on those 30 sales every month (assuming only 100 people search for you on a mobile device every month), which could lead to repeat sales, as well. You could be missing out in initial cash flow and profits, along with the opportunity to build a relationship with those people leading to repeat business and referral business. Potentially, you could be leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table just because you don’t have a mobile website.
Investing in a mobile website today will pay for itself very quickly. For most businesses, it won’t take more than just one or two repeat customers to pay for the cost of the mobile website and all the other customers you gain from this investment make up your newfound profits. Imagine how much your business could grow with just a few new customers becoming repeat customers every month.
The bottom line, without a mobile website, you’re business is missing out. You need to allow potential customers to find you within the local search results, on their mobile devices. When they do find you, providing a mobile website for your local business increases the odds they will show up at your restaurant, retail store or at least call to find out more about your company.