The Mobile Age And What It Means For Your Website
Is there anyone out there that doesn't yet have a smartphone? I will admit, I haven't seen many over the past few months, save for the one gentleman sporting a flip phone at the grocery store. I remember thinking how archaic it seemed, but is it really? It was less than 10 years ago that flip phones were all the rage, but my, how times have changed! Even my parents have smartphones, which is saying something! 
These days, people use their phones for everything. Now, when they are shopping for a new washer and dryer, they can find what they like and price match local stores via the Internet on their phone. It's changing the game for consumers, leading to quicker acquisition of a good deal, but also changing things for website designers.
Mobile Age: The Problem
You have signed up for your shared hosting package, built a killer website, and are sitting back waiting for the flood of visitors. But wait — your bounce rate is incredibly high. What could be causing this? Did you double check your website is optimized for mobile browsers? Uh oh…
Here are some statistics compiled by the Compuware Corporation, kind of food for thought:
- 71 percent of respondents expect websites to load just as fast on their smartphones as their desktop PCs.
- 74 percent won't wait longer than five seconds for the page to load.
- 46 percent said they will most likely not visit a website in the future after having trouble opening it in their mobile web browser.
- 34 percent said if a site performs poorly on their phone, they would head to the competitor's website immediately.
Those are some impressive numbers, and they point out an important fact: your website had better work well on a mobile platform!
What About The Companies That Have A Great Mobile Site?
The businesses that have a stellar mobile site are reaping the benefits, and then some. A study conducted by KISS Metrics found that sites optimized for viewing on a mobile device were able to bring in double the average traffic per user than those sites not optimized. In fact, visitors are 51 percent more likely to conduct business with a business that has a great mobile site.
So why is it that a UK study shows that only 20 percent of the biggest UK corporations offer an optimized mobile site?
Too Much, Too Fast
It really isn't that they haven't considered it. More likely is the fact that mobile technology has grown by leaps and bounds, seemingly at the speed of light. And the faster it grows, the more features users want their phones to have, leading to even faster growth. Basically, businesses can't keep up with technology.
It's time for businesses to see the value in a mobile site and realize that the sooner they act in adding an optimized mobile site on to their cheap or shared hosting plan, the sooner they will reap the benefits. And the sooner, the better.
The Time Is Now
Rather than look at your web hosting plan as the way to get a website built for users to login to on their PCs, you need to expand on that and realize that more often than not, users are relying on their phones to view your website. did you know it really isn't that difficult or costly to optimize your website for viewing on mobile devices? goMobi is just one of those sites, allowing you to create a mobile site in mere minutes using the website you already have.
Don't be afraid of the changes coming to technology — embrace them, and watch your business flourish.
Is your website optimized for mobile? Have you put this task off, thinking it's too much to handle?
