Having a mobile friendly website is vital in today’s marketplace. As the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to increase, so does the number of people using them for Internet searches and shopping. According to Gartner Research, mobile sales in the U.S. alone are set to reach $31 billion by 2015, compared to $11.6 billion in 2012. That is significant growth. Although currently, mobile sales are only about 10 percent of customers, the percentage is only going to continue to grow. Therefore, when you build the website for your company, you should ensure it is friendly across all mobile platforms in order to capitalize on a larger customer base.
Different Platforms
When you build a website, you have to keep in mind the different platforms that may access it. A customer might use a MAC or a PC when accessing from a laptop or desktop. To complicate it further, there are numerous browsers available for use, like Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. Each of these browsers is just a little bit different, so they may show your site differently. On top of that, with mobile devices you now have iOS, Android, and Windows devices, each with their own Internet browsers. When you create your website, you have to make sure it will load correctly and look great regardless of how your customers access the site. You can do this through using responsive web design. Alternatively, you can design a different version of your site for each major type of platform. You can find products to help you with that, like an iPhone website template.
Screen Size
Another major consideration is that mobile devices have smaller screens than the typical computer, even when compared with alaptop. Your website should reflect the fact that people might be looking at it with a smaller screen. Do not have too much text and have a simpler layout. Be very careful about the amount of text you include. The screen size is smaller, especially on smartphones. This means the font size is smaller, making it more difficult to read.
Making It Customer Friendly
The most important consideration for your mobile site is the make it mobile customer friendly. When creating the site, keep in mind that people are using smartphones and tablets. They will not want to do a lot of scrolling in order to find something. Additionally, they will not want to have to enter a lot of information on the screen, as this can be tiresome using the touchpad on the mobile device. It should also be quick to load, not taking too much of their data. There are simple ways to streamline your site and provide just the most important information for customers on the mobile site. If they want to know more, they can always visit your regular site at another time. However, you want to ensure you find the balance between being customer friendly and having all the applicable information. If your customers have a problems finding the information they seek, they will most likely give up rather than visit your regular site.
