We’e seen it all. After working with so many clients on so many websites, it would be surprising if we hadn’t. But we can still be surprised – like when new clients tell us they’re not concerned about optimising their site for mobile platforms. Usually this is because they think that just because smartphones and tablets have web browsers built in, their site is accessible and that’s all that’ required. We try very hard to keep our faces blank when this sort of thing comes up, because it’s tragically wrong.
Mobile Friendly Website Design VS normal Web Design
Almost half of all Americans routinely search the web and access websites from mobile devices, and this number is rising at an incredible pace. And most non-optimised websites look absolutely awful on a tiny smartphone screen, in a built-in browser that has none of the bells and whistles of standard desktop browsers “the web design is just all wrong. The end result? A muddled mess that people make a face at and back out of, going to the next site in the search results until they find one that loads crisply, neatly, and usefully on their device.
Why should you have a mobile-optimised version of your website? We could go on, but here are just a few of the most important considerations:
Don’t Waste Your Marketing
You’re paying good money and putting a lot of effort into search engine optimisation, pay-per-click campaigns, and your Google Local listing” just for starters. And it’s working! Your site comes up in the first rank of search results, often in the top spot. All that hard work and money paying off. Except, when they tap on the link, the website that comes up is chaotic, requiring a lot of scanning around with their finger on the screen, the text too small to read and the links difficult to hit.
We once had a dentistry practice as a client. The three partners were all great people we enjoyed working with. We did website design for them, and it was a work of art, and they were very happy. We tried to convince them that they needed a mobile-optimised site as well, but they disagreed ” no one made dentist appointments while running for the bus, they argued. A few weeks later, we sent them some analytics that showed some very discouraging numbers ” people were finding their site via mobile searches, but weren’t clicking past the home page. No interaction at all. The culprit? Not having a mobile site.
Concentrate on Your Customers
The people who are finding your sight via mobile searches are either your existing customers looking for convenience and service, or potential customers you would like to convert. Your website should serve them. It should serve them through smart and customer-oriented web design, and it should serve them by making all aspects of your business convenient for them to use.
Our dentist’s office found that the main thing their patients wanted from a mobile site was the ability to make and change appointments, instead of having to call in every time, and a way to easily contact their dentist. They wanted to be empowered and connected. After our analytics convince the three partners that they need a mobile website, we got to work, and created a clean, elegant mobile site that offered their patients easy access to information, appointment widgets, and easy contact forms. And business thrived. The mobile site was also a lot faster to download on expensive data plans, which their patients really appreciated.
Grab Every Opportunity
Website Design on Different Devices
You might not think that people look for your type of business while out and about – but they do. There were more than half a million location-based searches in 2012, and this number is growing constantly. In today’s day and age people are looking to make every moment of their day count, and often this means locating a business near them when it’s convenient. The right web design for mobile platforms can be the difference between them finding your business or finding someone else’s.
Our dentists learned this the day a woman booked a morning appointment through their new mobile site and arrived breathless, dressed for work, and told them she’d been on the bus heading to her office when a filling had worked loose. She’d found them using a local search and made the appointment on her phone, and they had her in the office within the hour, happy and contemplating switching dentists.
We can’t guarantee that new business will magically appear if you create a mobile-optimised version of your site. But we can guarantee it won’t if you don’t.
The Advantages of Mobile Websites is a post from:
