People want information and services, and they want them fast. With the advancement in technology, you can access this information and the services through your cell phones. Those companies that have not yet adapted to mobile may miss this opportunity to attract customers. It has become very important for companies to be able to cater to their customers over mobile phones. A mobile phone is the most personal form of communication and is becoming a powerful one as well. If you can capture a customer on their mobile, then you have them on all other platforms as well.
Why you should have a mobile-friendly site
1. Rise of the smartphones
Smartphones have become affordable over the past few years. Almost everyone is looking to buy one. These devices are excellent for handheld browsing. Since the sale of smartphones is increasing, it only makes sense for companies to have a site that can be easily browsed through on these devices.
2. Popularity of mobile internet
According to studies, about 40% of the people who have a mobile phone use it for going online, and half of them will go online at least once every day. This presents a huge opportunity for a business.
3. Inexpensive option
Because mobile screens are a lot different from computer screens, the site design has to change accordingly. It is a relatively cheap process and not very time-consuming either.
4. Use of GPS
GPS is a very useful technology. It is used by many mobile users to find out necessary things or directions. They also use it to find nearby services or businesses. If there is no mobile site available for your business then you are potentially losing a customer right in your own area.
5. Don’t get beaten by the competition
People love to browse while traveling. However, when they find that sites that they normally used on their PCs are not mobile compatible, they might end up switching to a site that provides similar services and is mobile compatible as well.
6. SEO
Having a mobile-friendly website also helps in SEO as it helps improve rankings on mobile-friendly search engines such as Google or Yahoo.
7. Compatible with all platforms, unlike mobile apps
The alternative to the mobile-friendly site is producing apps that perform similar functions. Now, this can be a very tedious task. Making an app is also quite expensive and apart from that, you would have to make different apps for different platforms. Once you make these apps, you have to fight hundreds of thousands of other apps to get into the spotlight.
8. 2D Bar codes
One great bonus that comes along with mobile-friendly websites is the 2D bar code. These appear like regular bar codes but are capable of so much more. They can be used for discounts. A customer takes a picture of the code with their cell phone and instantly has access to not only the details but also reviews of the product before they buy it.
9. Better user experience:
Earlier, it might not have been possible to make a mobile site and give the user a good enough experience because of the low bandwidth and server speeds. However, in recent times, this has changed and you can be assured that using a good mobile site will be an enriching experience for a user.
Within three years, the number of people accessing the internet via mobile will be more than those accessing it via a PC. This, more than anything else, should be a clear indication for you to start working on the mobile version of your site. Apart from that, the biggest draw on the internet today is social networking websites. Many people access these websites through their mobile devices. If they come across a link to your site, they would want to view it on their mobile screens.
Things to Keep in Mind
There are numerous reasons for you to have a mobile version of your site. Mobiles are the device of choice for many people today, and you would want to be accessible to them. However, while making mobile sites, you need to keep certain things in mind. People use mobiles for browsing because they want to save time. If a site takes too long to load, then there is no point in a mobile user visiting that site. You need to keep the page size small enough so it is loaded quickly on cellular networks.
Often the problem of text size also crops up. It is not a good idea to cram the most information you can in one page. Mobile screens are small and it becomes difficult to read a lot of text. Also clicking on links becomes a difficult task. Make sure that the content of your page can be viewed easily and the site can be navigated easily as well. If you are not someone who is surfing the net from your mobile, then you will soon be in minority. Shortly, most people will be using a mobile phone for browsing. This means that any business that has a presence on the internet right now should make appropriate changes so that its website is mobile-friendly.
