It’s a Mobile World Out There

We don’t need to quote stats to you; the evidence is right in front of your eyes. Walking down the street you’ll see everyone on their phones or tablets, conducting business or shopping or chatting. Your customers are never far away from their phones and more and more – especially with the holidays approaching – they’re doing their shopping on-the-go from a mobile device.

Google’s Studying Your Customers

Google recently completed a study of mobile searchhabits, and what they found shows that businesses had better be mobile friendly or they can expect to lose a lot of customers.

According to this study, 50% of people will use a business that they already know they like less often if the website isn’t mobile friendly. That means that even if you’ve established a good reputation with your customers, if your business isn’t convenient to them where your competitors are, then they’ll still go somewhere else.

Google also discovered that 67% of people are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site than a non-mobile site. So, without a mobile-friendly site it’s likely that you’re filtering out 67% of your potential customers – and no one wants that.

What’s in a Mobile-Friendly Site?

Here’s how to tell if your site is mobile friendly:

• Does it display all of your graphics and content when pulled up on a mobile device?
• Are links easy to click with a finger, or does the user need to pinch and zoom to use them?
• Is your content readable when the site loads, or do you have to zoom in to read it?
• Is the phone number or contact method on the website clickable, or does the website provide another way for customers to take action immediately?

61% of people quickly move on to a different website if they don’t immediately find what they’re looking for on a mobile site. Forcing your customer to squint and zoom is a good way to make them give up completely and go looking for your competitors.

On the other hand, if your site is mobile friendly and easy to use from a phone, 74% of people say they’re likely to return to that site in the future. A mobile friendly site isn’t just about not missing out on business; it’s about earning repeat business from customers who see that you care about bringing your business to them.

And Google Likes It Too

Hopefully we’ve convinced you that a mobile-friendly site is good for business – and we’ll have a few pointers on first steps to getting your site mobile ready in just a moment. But first, we wanted to point out something interesting that made us go “Hmm.”

Why did Google perform this study in the first place? We have our suspicions.

Since Google’s goal is to get more people using their search engine so that they can sell more advertising, it makes sense that Google wants people to be happy with their search results. And since more and more people are searching using mobile devices, Google wants to deliver good mobile sites.

It would not be improbable for Google to begin taking mobile friendliness into account when ranking a website in search results, so why not be prepared? Making your site mobile-friendly may cause Google to improve your rank in mobile searches in the future, and certainly will not hurt your ranking for non-mobile searches.

Read the full Google mobile study.

Moving to Mobile

Even if you already have a website, you have a few options that will get your business go mobile.

The first option is to build a mobile website. This is a good choice if you already have a website and are happy with it. The mobile website is independent of your existing site and is simply designed to be used with a mobile device. Customers can still type in your URL if they want, but the browser will automatically detect whether they are accessing your business from a mobile device and deliver the appropriate website.

The other option is a little bit cooler, and definitely recommended if you’re not happy with your current website or if you don’t have a website at all. This option is called responsive design. Instead of building a whole separate website for your business, responsive design allows one website to be viewed differently depending on the size of the screen. It’s the same website, so you don’t have to worry about updating more than one, but it automatically adjusts itself to be easier to use depending on how you’re accessing it. You can read more about responsive design in our blog post “Phones and Tablets are Calling – Is Your Site Responding?”

If you’re interested in learning more about the best way to mobilize your business, just contact us to set up a consultation. We’re happy to help!