Are Mobile Friendly Websites Important? Yes…

Are Mobile friendly websites Necessary? – Also Yes.

If your business website isn’t mobile ready (your site renders well on all mobile devices) in the next year, you’ll be loosing clients and customers. Plan ahead, don’t just build a mobile version of your site, build a complete mobile friendly websites for every business. For example, people like using the mobile functionality like big buttons, swiping and don’t need roll overs / roll downs. Look into Fluid Design (like this website) or create a complete mobile experience, more like a Mobile App of your website.

The mobile market continues to expand with 87% of the world subscribed to a mobile device at the end of 2011. Alarmingly this statistic is higher than the number of people who own a toothbrush!

Clearly if businesses are trying to connect better with their consumers, then mobile is the way to go. One particular usage of mobiles, web usage, is rapidly growing, demanding a response from businesses that are not mobile web compatible.

Recent statistics compiled by various consumer insight groups highlight the importance of a business’ mobile web compatibility:

• Tipping Point for Mobile Phone Browsing vs Desktop Browsing as an entry point or landing page for a website – By the year 2014, more people will open a mobile friendly website for the first time from a mobile device than a desktop computer.
• Currently 10.11% of website Page Views come from a mobile device – mobiThinking / StatCounter. (Note: this is page views not landing pages)
• 61% of customers who visit a website that is not compatible with their mobile will go to a competitor’s website instead. http://luxcloud.com/node/161
• Some people access the internet solely from a mobile device, especially in developing countries where the only form of internet access comes from mobile phones for the majority of people. For example 59% of mobile users in India and 70% of those in Egypt.
• 10-20% of search queries come from mobile phones.
• Up to 50% of people won’t return to a website if they had trouble accessing it before.

The mobile friendly websites’ accessibility statistics speak for themselves. As improvements in mobile technologies continue to be made and the cost of data reduces, we can only expect to see mobile web become more and more dominant.

Take a look at Michael’s advice referenced on Anthill, Shoe-String’s Business Magazine and Grow Your Business.

Test your website now try GO|MO by Google the Smart Phone Website Test Tool.

Take a look at our Mobile Website work for Etihad Stadium.