Why It’s Important To Have A Mobile Website For Your Business
It’s an amazing fact that in 2010 36% of all smart phone users browsed the internet on their mobile phone. Note that this statistic is from 2010, it’s now 2011 and we’re about to go into 2012. I’ve seen a few recent statistics that put mobile phone browsing as high as 70%. The bottom line is this: people are regularly using their mobile phones to browse the internet. According to Gartner research, by 2013 more people will use mobile phones than PC’s to get online.
Walk into any cafe near a shopping centre and you will see people using their mobile phones to research products and services. People are no longer just accessing the internet from their home computer or their laptop computer – they’re accessing the internet from all sorts of mobile devices – from mobile phones to tablets. These devices provide a completely different experience to that of the personal computer. To communicate effectively on these devices you will most likely need to redesign and simplify the pages of your website.
And there’s more research in this space – a recent survey by Compuware found that 40% of users turned to a competitors website after a bad mobile experience.
So how do you go about making a mobile website? The good news is every website is already mobile – all mobile browsers can access any website. But, not every website is designed for a mobile browser. There are the basics, such as no flash (iPhones don’t support flash and will just display an empty box where the flash component is) to making sure the site is “thumb friendly” – lots of nice big fat buttons.
Secondly, you have to put yourself in your users shoes and understand what the user is looking for and how they are consuming that information. People searching on mobile devices are generally not sitting at a desk with a cup of tea beside them. Chances are, they’re walking through a car park, phone in hand, trying to find somewhere to buy a present for their 16 year old son. It really is vital that the design of the page is easy to navigate with only the necessary information and no clutter.
And it’s important to remember that you can have a mobile website as well as your regular website. When a user visits your website the first thing we do is determine what browser they are using. If they are using a regular desktop browser we will direct them to the main website but if they are using a mobile browser we will direct them to the mobile website. The user only needs to type in one url on any device and we will determine the best website to show them.
To highlight why it is important for your business to have a mobile website here are two examples. Both of these websites sell Nutcase helmets online (if you don’t know what a nutcase helmet is, you’re missing out!)
Website number 1 – nutcasehelmets.com.au
Open this website on your computer by going to www.nutcasehelmets.com.au Here you get the normal website designed for a personal computer with a keyboard, a mouse and a normal screen. But, if you open this website on your mobile phone you will see a beautifully designed mobile website.
It’s a fantastic example of a mobile website. I was sitting in the car this morning next to my friend who was driving and we were browsing the range of helmets and I was helping him decide which designs he should buy for his kids for Christmas. He was driving and whenever we stopped at the lights I would show him helmets.
Website number 2 – toyssale.com
This is the website that came up first in my google results when I was searching on my mobile phone. Again, open the website in a new window. On a normal browser the website doesn’t look too bad and chances are I would have clicked around and if the price was right I would have been comfortable purchasing from the site.
But I wasn’t on a normal computer, I was in the car on a mobile browser and when the website opened on the phone it was the same as the normal website and incredibly difficult to navigate.
It was very hard to read in the car. I had to zoom in to read different parts of the page and while the navigation is ok when using a normal browser, it was awful on the mobile phone. As you would expect I was back to google quick smart to find a better mobile site for what I was looking for.
So if you’re considering a mobile app rather than a mobile website we will always tell you to go for the mobile website first. A mobile website is a must-have. For some brands, like a mobile news site, a mobile app makes perfect sense, but in most situations users are going to look for you via a browser. If you’re going to search for any type of product or service on your mobile phone you are going to search the mobile web, not an app store.
Anthony Gherghetta is the lead mobile project manager at The App Studio in Melbourne, Australia. Having studied computer programming at RMIT University and having worked in online marketing for over 10 years Anthony has a deep understanding of mobile software and mobile marketing. http://www.theappstudio.com.au
Service Availability: Most services reviewed by this websites are available in the United Kingdom. This includes the following cities and their surroundings: London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Bradford, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Wakefield, Cardiff, Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester, Sunderland, Belfast, Newcastle upon Tyne, Brighton, Hull, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Derby, Swansea, Southampton, Salford, Aberdeen, Westminster, Portsmouth, Oxford, Newport, Norwich, Cambridge, Gloucester, Bath, Canterbury and others.
Looking For More Information?
Make sure to explore other articles in the Uncategorized category or contact us to suggest a website or a service to review.
|
|
