Why You Should Convert
Your Website into a Mobile Version
Are your product/service
offerings and your customers in the same place at the same time? The connection
between you and your customer is the necessary component.
Before the Internet
and search engines came into play it was all about advertising. Getting the
word out about your product through mediums like TV or newspaper ads,
billboards, word of mouth and leaflets stuck on car door handles were the way
you got to your customers.
The general idea remains the same when used with
local search marketing and just as advertising has evolved in the real world
it has done the same online. In both instances, the evolution has come about in
reaction to who is being marketed to. Years back as people began to use cars
and drive on the highway, roadside billboards became more viable. The same
thing is happening right now online as more and more people are consuming and
searching for content online from their mobile phones.
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| Local Search on Smart Devices |
As smart phones have evolved,
mobile internet traffic has increased exponentially. In fact the gap between
desktop and mobile searches continues to narrow and predictions place mobile
searches in the United States ahead of desktop searches as soon as 2015.
Mobile phones view web
pages differently than desktops. Smaller screens mean less viewable content at
a time. You probably have used term "above the
fold" to describe the information that is first viewable on a website. For
a mobile device the information viewable above the fold is more like a
newspaper being folded into a quarter of its normal size.
Mobile phones are used
for local search. It is estimated that up to 80% of searchers research
purchases online before shopping within 10 to 20 miles. Because of how well
represented brick-and-mortar businesses are becoming customers is able to
compare products online before going out to the store. Some will even compare
pricing on their cell phone while in the store.
Mobile searches are much
focused. More so than normal online searches. It's much more difficult to type
into a cell phone compared to a keyboard so this lends itself to focused search
queries. Combine this idea with searchers who are shopping in the physical
world while they compare in the digital one and you are up against your first
impression.
Websites are doing
more to be mobile-friendly. Not every website can initially justify the
investment that a mobile version of their site represents. But make no mistake,
eventually all websites will need this ability. The best way to determine when
this needs to happen is through the analytics of your website. Once your mobile
percentage rises above 30% of overall traffic, you need to seriously consider a
mobile version of your website. If a visitor is accessing your site and the
site of your competitor and you're the one without a mobile site, then you've
already lost.
Mobile websites act as
a quick reference. Especially for service-oriented websites, having a mobile
webpage that readily displays clickable, callable information means that your
customers can quickly contact you when they need to.
Get responsive. If
your site can automatically detect a device's screen size and pull up the
correct design you are a step ahead of the game. Keep the same look,
simplified. With a smaller screen, you are going to need a less complex design.
That doesn't mean that you should ditch the design of your desktop site in
favor of a white background and only text. Use the same color scheme and a
simplified version of your header.
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| Responsive Website Design |
Reduce the amount of
text. No one wants to be reading a bunch of tiny words on their Smartphone
screen. Cut out what isn't essential. From there, try to explain the essential
elements in fewer words.
Steve Steinberger
www.klicktwice.com
561-281-8330
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