Do I need a mobile site for my business?
Over the past few years, the use of mobile devices has increased considerably. According to the UN the number of cell phone subscribers is close to 4 billion this year globally, that´s an audience too large to be ignored.
It is true that not all mobile devices have Internet access capabilities, but it is becoming popular day by day. We can safely say that all phones will have some sort of internet access in the near future.
Smartphones represented 23% of all active handsets in Western Europe in 2010, but this figure will have reached 72% by 2016.*
Why do you need a mobile website?
Availability
If you company has a mobile website, it becomes more accessible to your target audience and increases the chances of possible sales, assisting them at all times. Your website is like a normal store but your mobile site is a 24/7, always available.
Different Google ranking
Google has a different index for mobile sites and at the moment is fairly empty allowing your site to rank high with a good SEO strategy.
Growth of Smartphone users:
Smartphone users in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy has risen by 32% in comparison to last year to 51.6 million users. In the UK alone the number of Smartphone users have increased by a massive 70% in the last year to 11 million.*
Give your costumers a good experience
Desktop sites are usually difficult or impossible to use on a mobile, if not completely broken. Mobile browsing is all about offering a good experience to the user; simplify navigation, mobile users don't want to be scrolling up and down, left and right or clicking in different tabs to get what they are looking for, prioritize content, display valuable content for the users, have a "light weight" mobile site, should load as quickly as your desktop site on a mobile.
You can check how your site would look on a mobile here or here. In this last one you might need to install a Java plugin.
Location-based Services
You can attract customers from your area by sending shopping coupons via mobile devices based on their location.
Mobile web will overtake the desktop within 5 years:
Market you products
Most of your users will have a mobile where you can send your marketing messages, announcing new products, discounts or anything of their interest. Those messages are more likely to be read on mobiles than computers .
Most of the big companies have mobiles sites already and are investing big amounts of money in marketing, so... what are you waiting for?
II´ll be writing about Mobile Marketing in another article, you can check these two mobile sites to see what a good and user friendly design is, making the experience much better.
www.dropbox.com/m/login
/m.facebook.com/
Disadvantages
Unfortunately like all "good things", mobile sites have an inconvenience. There are thousands of different mobiles devices in the world, all of them use different browsers. Your mobile site needs to be cross-browser but also cross-platform which can give more than one headache to designers and developers.
Get started, don't get left behind! Go mobile!
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