Visibility

“Do I need a mobile website?”
It’s a recurring question, and one for which I have too many possibly biased answers. I guess you could say that not everyone needs a mobile website, but as mobile continues to grow in popularity -- especially with 4G service being extended to more markets -- many website owners are finding it difficult to ignore visitors on the go. And that’s a great choice. Over seventy percent of the world population is mobile users, so chances are if you have a web presence, you have had at least a few mobile visitors on your website.  So what’s the big deal?

While many new devices are capable of displaying desktop-optimized websites without issue, the inherent limitations of mobile devices, such as tiny screen size, slow load times, Awkward input, and cumbersome navigation, means that user-experience is greatly affected. Even further, many older devices still in use today can’t load a normal desktop website at all. With the prevalence of Web 2.0 technologies which utilize heavy scripting and complex functionality, or Flash which can’t be viewed on most devices, many mobile users are met with system crashes or pages that just won’t load.

Providing a mobile-optimized website is great for brand awareness – plus, it shows that you know your audience and care about making a lasting impression. Being forward thinking also means you have the advantage over your competition, which is a step in the right direction.

So how do you know if you should have a mobile website?  Oftentimes you can find out just how many mobile visitors you have by checking your Google Analytics account.  Not only can this tool provide you with the screen resolutions of your visitors, but with the pervasiveness of mobile, Google has even added a “Mobile” tab, which provides valuable data about the devices accessing your website. If that’s not enough to convince you, check out these stats:

•    9 out of 10 of every man, woman, and child have a mobile phone. (Simmons’ National Consumer Study, 2010)
•    In the next five years, more people will connect to the internet via a mobile vs. a PC (Morgan Stanley)
•    From January to March 2010, 314.7 million phones were sold –54.3 million of which were smartphones (Gartner Research)
•    In 2010, mobile subscribers surpassed 5 billion (ITU, Feb 2010).  The world population is now over 6.9 billion.
•     Children are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book.  According to the National Literacy Trust, 85% of children own a phone while only 73% own books at home.

It is Crucial to Cater to the Mobile Audience
Did you know that over 82% of Americans never leave home without bringing their mobile device?  As a matter of fact, most people are so deeply attached to their mobiles that they are never more than two feet away from them, some even reporting sleeping with their device. Having a mobile presence is important because mobile facilitates the process of connecting with your audience on the most personal level, and location-independence creates many new opportunities for businesses looking for a well-rounded marketing plan.

In mobile usability studies by Dr. Jakob Nielsen, Web usability specialist, it was established that sites designed specifically for mobile devices had significantly higher success rates than desktop sites - and users reported higher subjective satisfaction ratings as well. Overall user performance improved by an estimated twenty percent with mobile-optimized sites. As we all know, successful, happy users are more likely to return to your site again and again, and have a higher chance of converting as well.

Search is also a key factor with mobile. Google currently holds ninety-eight percent of mobile search share and reports that the average query on mobile search is fifteen characters long, but takes an estimated thirty key presses and approximately forty seconds to enter. In order to supply the most relevant results to the user, Google crawls websites disguised as multiple devices, and ranks sites partially based on how well the page will render on the requesting device. In fact, Google ranks mobile sites ahead of desktop results for queries they’ve identified as mobile, so relevant, mobile-friendly results are imperative.

So the question changes from whether or not you need a mobile-optimized website to whether or not you can afford not to have one. If you care about user experience, brand image, and visitor retention, there should be no question in your mind. This year when you review your marketing plan, be sure to think about your on-the-go visitors and how they’re viewing your business.