Walk into any shopping centre or town centre and everyone is using their mobile phone.

You certainly notice that Smart phones are growing more and more popular and everyone seems to be using them constantly. What most businesses are not aware of is how this is affecting their online marketing strategy. In simple terms, if you do not have a separate mobile friendly version of your website then you are missing the growing number of prospective customers that want to find out about you and your business.

93% of businesses don’t have a mobile website!

SMB DigitalScape analysed more than 1 million Small to medium-sized business websites around the world in 14 countries and 93.3 percent of SMB Websites are not mobile-compatible and will not render successfully on mobile devices or smartphones.

Here’s the thing….

If you don’t have a mobile friendly website then you are not giving your customers what they are looking for.

In this digital age where every business is looking to enhance their online presence a mobile site is no longer a luxury. They are a necessity to stay ahead of the competition.

What is a Mobile Website?

A mobile website is just a small and simplified version of your main website that is designed to be displayed on mobile phone or tablet. Often the internet connection to a mobile device is much slower than your main computer so a special version of your website is designed to speed everything up to view on a small screen.

Tesco main site & mobile site

Your site right now can be viewed on a mobile phone but it probably requires the user to navigate around, zoom, pinch, resize and generally needs a certain amount of patience from the user to find what they are looking for. It can be very frustrating for the customer and more importantly they don’t have the patience to wade through the chaos to find the information that they need. In fact, nearly 2 in 3 users are unlikely to return to a mobile site which they had trouble with and 40% of consumers say they would visit a competitor’s mobile site instead.

In most cases not having a mobile optimised site drives your customers away!

Why would I need a mobile friendly website & what are the benefits?

Converting your main website to a mobile version puts you in a great position to capture the booming increase of smart phone and tablet usage on the go and positions your business ahead of the competition. Remember that only 7% of businesses have a mobile website, which opens up a huge opportunity for your customers and new customers to contact and find your business.

Smart phones & Tablets are popular and the market for these devices is booming. Your customers are part of that boom and your customers are using these devices. For example, users are increasingly using mobile devices for shopping, so if you are a retailer, can you afford to miss out on this kind of opportunity?

Source: The Mobile Movement Study

More Website Traffic

Increasing your website traffic has a result that your web rankings and search engine results will increase as you have an easy accessible website.

Customer Interaction

Mobile websites are typically designed to have a high level of consumer interactivity meaning you can have a more personal relationship with your customers. User engagement can be increased by integrating your mobile platform with your social media presence such as your Facebook & Twitter pages. Comment & Feedback can then be sent at a much higher speed than traditional means.

Conclusion

Businesses need to consider developing a mobile website to adapt to changing technology and the huge increase in smart phone usage. So, to survive in business, you need to be connected to your audience at all times wherever they are or whatever they are doing.