Why You Need a Mobile Website

As a business owner we know you already have several goals for 2014 on your list. If nothing else, make sure having a mobile-friendly website is one of them.  While being mobile-ready has been talked about for the last couple of years, research is showing that 2014 is the year being mobile might make or break your online strategy. Here are some quick facts about how mobile is changing the internet landscape.

• Nearly 40% of internet time is spent on mobile devices. (Source: ComScore)
• Mobile users will surpass desktop users in 2014. (Source: ComScore)
• Tablets alone will surpass PC sales in 2 to 3 years.  (Source: Business Insider)
• This year 88% of shoppers surveyed have researched their purchases online and then went to a store to make their purchase. (Source: Sparkle Research)
• Mobile retail sales in 2013 are expect to hit 34.2 billion dollars. (Source: Sparkle Research)
• Mobile devices account for 28% of the web traffic in the third quarter of 2013. That is a 67% increase from last year at this time. (Source: Walker Sands Quarterly Mobile Traffic Report)

The folks who are depending more and more on getting their information from mobile are not just statistics, they are your customers.  They research and gather information, review products, analyze company information, and make plans all viewing your website on mobile. Make sure you are answering their questions, rather than letting them hit the back button and then research and find your competitors. Looking for some guidelines on how to make a mobile website work for? Here are three tips for your mobile website redesign.

Keep Your Website Simple. Sure it’s fun to have all the bells and whittles of fancy graphics and flash-based videos but the truth is that many devices don’t support flash and your visitors may not want to take the extra time that your videos take to load on mobile. You also want to make sure your website displays your company name, address, email, and phone number in plain text at the top of the page. You don’t want any cumbersome graphics to stand in the way of the quick touch it takes for your customers to contact you.

Consider a Responsive Design Solution. What is exactly is responsive design? It uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) technology to create a single version of a website that auto-adjusts to display properly on most devices.  In other words, the content in your website will flow into place depending on the mobile device on which it is viewed. A website that has a three column design viewed on a tablet might reflow into a scrolling one-column design when viewed on an iPhone.  Responsive designs automatically allow your website content to be viewed in the best possible layout.

So this year give your organization’s website the edge that will pay off for years to come – make it mobile. If you are interested in more of our thoughts on how to make a mobile site a reality for you this year, just give us a call here at Eclipse.  It’s our business to help your business succeed online.