Just because you have a small business website, that doesn’t mean that it’s automatically going to be successful. After the initial newness of your site has worn off, you may be surprised to find that your site isn’t performing as well as you would expect. While some may recommend revamping your entire website, you should first ask yourself this question: Are you optimized for mobile devices?
If you are not currently optimizing your business site for mobile devices, you are missing out on traffic and sales that could be bringing in the revenue you need to push yourself forwards to success. With consumers turning increasingly towards mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets while shopping, it’s important that your information remain available and accessible quickly and easily, or you’re going to be left behind.
With high speed cellular plans and public Wi-Fi at every turn, we are now able to access all the information we need globally, with around the clock connectivity to promote your business to the people you want to see it. Users must always be conscience to the fact that public Wi-Fi or a shady app might carry nasty malware that could damage their device. The warning signs are: high data use, unwanted text messages, no sound on iPhone video or Android devices.
As a business owner, it’s really required at this point that you stay in tune with the status of your site and your online presence; otherwise you could be losing thousands, even millions of dollars in revenue. Not only that, it means that you have to make a concentrated effort to attract and keep these mobile consumers, who now search for everything from new cars, to new love, via mobile.
Creating a successful mobile version of your site isn’t something that you can do in a couple of days. You should consider contacting your web designer, or a new web designer who can assist you with mobile optimization. Many things need to be addressed, configured, reworked and tested before you can switch seamlessly between your standard and mobile version websites. Each content management system (CMS) has to communicate effectively in order for the project to go off without a hitch.
Interested in learning more about how you can optimize for mobile without hassle? Here are some extra rules and helpful tips that can get you started on the right track.
Simplify Themes and Layouts
Using the basics in order to get your point across might be the best way to go if you’re worried that customers might have issues finding you. Start out with simple information such as your location, hours, prices and a working phone number where you can be reached. This can help improve foot traffic and customers will respect your approach with consistent customer service. This also helps mobile devices of all models and types load your information quickly, instead of getting stuck on a fancy picture or video that contains little to no useful data.
Consider a Mobile App
For some businesses, it might not be worthwhile to create a separate website just for mobile users. For some shop fronts, you may have better results by creating your own standalone application for your brand. Consider online stores, booking reservations, discussion forums and product reviews on a mobile app instead of a site, giving users easy access to things they frequently want to see. This can also give you more functionality than a website, depending on the call to action you require from your consumer.
Use More Information, Less Flash
Although it’s tempting, stay away from overloading your mobile site with flashy photos and videos. These sites will slow down how fast the page can load on a smaller device, and in some cases may not load at all, depending on the users bandwidth limitations. Lower quality images load faster, and although you sacrifice a small bit o quality, you won’t be losing your customers to a site that will actually load.
So, with this starting info, you should be able to decide if you would like to begin with a cloud hosted website that’s been configured for mobile devices, or if your business would be better served with the functionality of a mobile application. Be sure to discuss each option with your partners and web designer in order to make the best decisions, and don’t forget to discuss online marketing efforts in order to take advantage of your new site look and increasingly-mobile dominant web browsing trends.
