Mobile Websites - 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs One

Most of us started out in the world of mobile phones playing Snake on the Nokia 3210. T’was a simpler time... So it really should come as no surprise that mobile usage is primarily games and social media today.

But amidst the Candy Crush marathons and Facebook Newsfeed checking, it seems mobile internet browsing is overtaking desktop internet browsing…

Source: Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley, "Internet Trends," April 12, 2010

Mary Meeker, known as ‘Queen of the Internet’, predicted mobiles would dominate desktop PCs in 2014, and it’s looking like a possibility. Supporting her predictions, Intelligent Positioning compared mobile traffic share to desktop traffic share in 2013, and found…

Mobile share of traffic increased from 22.8% to 37%,

Whilst desktop’s share of traffic decreased from 77.3% to 62.9%.

At this rate, mobile and tablet usage could potentially overtake desktop web browsing by July of this year.

Are you ready?

It may feel like mobile internet is still in its infancy, but it's been having nothing but growth spurts. Mobile Web is growing 8 times faster than the internet did in the 90s and early 2000s, so it’s time to pull your socks up. Businesses need to go where their customers are, and most of them are on mobiles!

Source: Hibu

85% of UK smartphone users have searched for local information and 81% of these took action as a result.

Small-to-Medium-Enterprises with optimised mobile sites report 20-30% of online revenue from mobile commerce.

But my current website works fine on a mobile, you just have to zoom in… a lot.

Your website may function on a mobile, but if it’s not designed for mobile-use then you’re missing out. It’s pretty obvious that a mobile is smaller than a desktop computer, but it’s not just a size thing.

Mobile web browsing is a wholly different experience to desktop web browsing. For starters, you aren’t confined to a chair at your computer desk. You’re free to focus on other things, and absentmindedly check your emails on your phone. We carry the internet around like an accessory now, and as such, we treat it differently.

Mobile web browsing is about ease of use, speed, convenience and more speed. Having the internet in your pocket has led to people having a need for immediate information, and they aren’t going to wait around for your massive website to load on their mobile! There’s a different mind-set with mobile web browsing, and it’s foolish not to adapt your website to take advantage of that.

7 Reasons You Need a Mobile Website

1. Mobility

The comScore infographic below highlights the differences in the way we use our devices; 'mobiles brighten the commute' but tablets come out at night. Desktop computers and laptops are being seen as a restrictive machine to use during working hours. On the other hand, mobiles are things we weren’t allowed to play with in class; there is still an element of fun. 

Most importantly, people carry their mobiles everywhere these days; tap into that resource.

Source: comScore

We saw earlier that 85% of people in the UK use their mobile when out and about, to browse for local businesses. If 10 local hairdressers appear in the search results, sites optimised for mobile web will load quickest, others probably won’t load on a 3g connection. With 10 options, how long would you wait for the one that can’t load? You’d move on to a quicker site, and so will your potential customers.

Source: Hibu

2. Competition

Big companies like Amazon have already heavily invested in mobile websites. And with around 180 million active users, it’s safe to say people are adapting to these new designs. You have an advantage here; other businesses have taken the risk building up mobile web popularity and legitimacy. It’s now a proven method of communicating with customers. You just have to adapt your website to start capitalising on the modern market.

Otherwise, forget the 50% of mobile users now exclusively using mobile websites. If a business you directly compete with is adapted for mobile, you’re just giving them free reign on the market.

Source: Super Monitoring, Poland

3. Out of date

A normal website now looks dated on a mobile. Big companys have a big chunk of the pie when it comes to website visitors. What that means for you is that your customers are used to mobile optimised websites, designed for speed and thumb position etc. They’re speeding around the internet, devouring information with wild abandon. And then they encounter your website, or should I say, a loading screen...

When it finally loads, it’s unreadable. You have to zoom in on sections and scroll around, wary of accidentally tapping a link. Then you have to zoom in enough so that your fingers can select the tiny menu options correctly, only to encounter another loading screen. It’s slows you down, ruins the user experience, and your potential customer is already searching for an alternative business.

4. Faster loading time

Yes, it may have already come up in this article…

Source: Strangeloop

No matter who your target audience is, they’re impatient on mobile devices. 85% of mobile users expect sites to load at least as fast, if not faster, than on a desktop computer, but this isn't easy. 

There are a number of obstacles your phone faces. Mobile devices are less powerful than computers, have smaller screen resolutions and face data limitations from mobile phone contracts. On top of that, websites take a much longer route to reach your phone than your computer.

These are just a few technical differences, but they all have to be kept in mind when optimising your website for mobiles. Ignoring these differences, means more loading screens on your website.

5. Phones don’t come with a mouse attached

There’s nothing worse than trying to tap on a link with your finger, but the text is so small that you keep clicking the wrong one. Fingers just aren’t as accurate as a mouse pointer. But when people are using mobiles on-the-go, they aren’t going to whip out a mouse and start attaching wires etc. It’s an intuitive interface, and your website needs to work around it. There are minute details to consider when it comes to tapping onscreen, such as having buttons right-aligned for the right thumb and thus optimising for right-handed users...

These details just aren’t relevant to desktop website designers, yet it can make a huge difference to mobile users.

6. Easier to get in touch

It’s much easier for clients to contact you from your mobile site. All they have to do is click on your number to initiate a phone call, or click on the email address to start writing to you. This key design feature reduces the chance of the user getting distracted and possibly forgetting to make their enquiry.

For example, Jeremy is looking up local plumbers on his desktop computer. After a quick search, he selects a plumber, looks up their contact details and then writes their number down on a pen and paper. Task done, he heads to Facebook to see what’s happening, then hours later heads to bed and the paper lies forgotten. Cut out the middleman, and your customer will just get in touch.

7. Brand Identity

You’re solidifying your online identity with the addition of a mobile website to your arsenal. Sure, your desktop website functions on mobiles, but it is disappointing potential customers. With a simpler mobile website, your business identity is strengthened, and you become a brand that people can rely on.

I hope we've made things a little clearer, but it is an ever-growing topic so we'll definitely be returning in a later article!

If you have any questions on mobile websites for small-to-medium businesses, just pop the question in an email and send it to us at office@vitalhike.co.uk, or leave us a comment below! 

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