Why having a mobile website is important in today’s world and what you can do.
We have all heard it somewhere before, You need to be on mobile! But why? we will go over a few points and explain why having a mobile site is really important in today’s world.
How big is the market for mobile shoppers?
Big! over the past few years more and more people have started reaching for their phones when out and about to quickly find the nearest shop or restaurant or to simply shop for their next big buy. In fact, 73% of adults accessed the internet using there phones and 62% of Smartphone users used their phone to make a purchase over the last 6 months.
Slowly going are the days where you would nip into town to buy a new pair of shoes or a gift for that special someone due to how easy and quick it is to now order online more and more people now prefer shopping online. However, if your site and customer experience is not optimized for mobile users the experience can be a negative one.
Mobile users don’t wait around!
So it’s important to slim your desktop site down for mobile and should contain just the key details and points you need to get across. Customers that are accessing your site via a mobile device tend to be out and about and therefore busy. They need information quickly to make a snap purchase or to find a service.
In fact, if your site doesn’t load within the recommend 3 seconds chances are they will simply go to the next search result down. Make it easy for them to get what they need.
Do it for Google.
Another great reason is since googles latest update it now gives more weight in search rankings to sites that account for mobile users, in other words, if your site is mobile responsive google respects this and awards you with high rankings. If your competitors don’t have mobile versions of their websites this could potentially be a huge advantage to you.
It’s all about function.
Your customers will love it, having a responsive or adaptive website makes your site work on every browser and device out there. so whether your users are using a phone, tablet or desktop computer they are able to browse and view your site with ease. nothing is more frustrating than having to pinch and zoom a site because it isn’t optimised for smaller screens.
You’ll look modern and up to date.
Another great advantage is you will appear to be up to date and modern, you’re customers will feel like your site is regularly updated and show you are put the time and care into providing the best service possible.
How do I get a mobile site?
There are a few ways to achieve this, it all depends on how your site is built a few options are.
Responsive Template – If you use a CMS like WordPress or Joomla you can buy Pre-made themes that are fully responsive for all screen sizes.
Adaptive Mobile Site – You could build a whole new site for just mobiles, the browser would load your mobile site instead of your desktop this is an adaptive mobile approach, there are a few plugins out there for common CMS platforms like WordPress & Joomla
Alter your sites CSS – This one is a little more hands-on and would require a web developer if you are not too familiar with CSS / HTML. You could take your original CSS file and add media queries and a grid-based library this will change the style and layout depending on screen sizes. This would require a lot of work and customisation but you’ll keep your current sites look on a desktop and have the same design but tweaked for mobile.
Go Completely new – One of the ones we would recommend is starting again this means you can build your site from the ground up to be lightweight, fast and fully optimised for all devices, the more expensive option but would be more reliable and better in the long run. This also gives you the option to rebrand and bring new modern features and design elements to your website.
You should now understand the importance of having a website that’s built to work on any device and screen and a little bit on how you can go about bringing your site up to date but if you are not sure and need help we can adapt, change and update current websites to work across all devices and screen sizes. You can even keep your existing website theme. For more information give us a call.
