Why you need a mobile website for your business

The following is a feature article from Jaaved Khatree, SEO Strategist at 123SEO.

In the last quarter of 2010, there were more smartphones sold than PCs, for the first time in history. In mid 2011, consumers were spending more time on smartphones and mobile devices than on their PCs.

There’s now more people accessing the Internet from more devices, from more places than ever before, and this is a big deal for business owners and retailers.

Why? Because 79% of smartphone users in Australia use their devices for online shopping but a vast majority of Australian retailers don’t have a smartphone-friendly website. So when your customers are visiting your website on their mobile device, it doesn’t look half as impressive as it does when viewing it on a PC.

It doesn’t make for a great visual experience (tiny text, very large images, Flash, etc) and couple this with the generally slower loading times on mobile networks, your potential customers start to fade away quickly – and all because your site wasn’t optimised for a mobile device.

But it’s a relatively easy problem to solve – all it takes is a bit of time and dedication to provide a complete user experience, no matter where or how your customer accesses your website.

The trick is to keep it very, very simple. From navigation to calls to action to information. This is not meant to be like your regular website with all the bells and whistles. Know what your customer wants when they visit your website and make this the centre of attention. For example, if you’re a removalist, you’ll want to make your ‘free quote’ button big and clear as well as your contact number. Your customer should be able to get information easily without scrolling or navigating too much. There’s no need for fancy imagery either as this just adds to the load time which we want to minimise at all costs.

The other trick is to make your site work with any mobile device, since the screen sizes vary significantly. A key is to use responsive CSS when styling up your website as the site will stretch/shrink based on the screen of the device it’s being viewed on.

If the desktop version of your site is Flash based, there’s no need to replicate that on your mobile site as Flash doesn’t render on the iPhone/iPad and also adds to page load times. Stick to HTML and keep it simple yet classy. If you’re wondering about SEO, it’s actually very easy to optimise for a mobile site. Using clear headings, dot points and concise paragraphs that succinctly provide information whist using your target keywords, you can easily dominate the mobile space.

Now while you’re working on your mobile friendly website, you might be considering an app. It’s generally a lot more affordable and easier to develop and maintain a mobile website than a mobile app. Of course, there are many instances where an app makes sense but it doesn’t remove the need for a mobile friendly website. With mobile set to explode in 2012 in every way from usage to Internet connectivity to commerce, a website that displays correctly on a mobile device is an absolute necessity.