Mobile-friendly sites are websites created especially for handheld devices (smartphones and tablets) through the use of adaptive design techniques. This means that we will use the principles of mobile website design to deliver a consistent and qualitative experience each time a user requests your website’s content from a mobile source. The server will then provide the right version of content – for tablets or smartphones – with a great design and enhanced usability.
Why having a mobile website is important – some statistics
In order to understand why it is important to make a mobile website for your brand or company, we would like to present some informative statistics about mobile platforms and the evolution of the mobile web. The source of these statistics is the “Our Mobile Planet” study made by Google.
For example:
- 80% of US mobile devices users never leave home without them
- 97% use their mobile devices at home, 83% on the go and 78% use them in a store
- 66% of US mobile users access the internet at least once a day
- Emailing (73%), search engines (62%), social networking sites (60%) and video sharing sites (34%) are the most frequent activities in which mobile devices users engage
- 59% of US residents use mobile devices to look up product or service information
- 73% browse the internet – which means they are on the lookout for great websites.
And if these statistics aren’t convincing enough, you should also know that mobile-friendly sites are ranked higher by all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) in the search that is performed from a mobile device. As the Google study we mentioned shows, 61% only look at the first page of results when conducting a search on their smartphone. So no matter how good your website is, if it’s not optimized for mobile use, than a competitor could be alienating your customers because they have invested in this.
Smartphone and tablet users are interested in mobile websites because they want to:
- Call a business or call for a service (52%)
- Look the business up on a map or get directions to the business or service (50%)
- Read or write a review about a business or service (15%)
- Recommend a business or service to someone else (13%)
- Purchase a product or service on their smartphone (35%).
With this kind of engagement and intent for purchase, it would be a wasted opportunity not to capitalize on mobile platforms and not to make a mobile website.
Mobile-friendly sites – the key components
When approaching a mobile platform, you should be ready to invest some time and financial resources into mobile website design and mobile architecture and development. This investment will bring return on investment sooner than you imagine, as an increasingly higher percentage of visitors are coming from mobile searches.
As a mobile applications developer, Sacramento Design Network has a team of creative designers and experiences web developers to manage your mobile project from beginning to end, monitor it and optimize it afterwards.
There are 10 essential elements that we focus on when building a mobile website:
- Functionality – defining how your mobile website will be used should include two factors: your business objectives and your users’needs.
- Information architecture – the flow of information through your website when running a mobile device should be a seamless integration of graphic, text, images and other types of multimedia content designed to serve the user’s purposes.
- Content – the content should be minimal and filtered to its essentials.
- Mobile website design – should focus on creating a great user experience ; it should be beautiful, usable and compelling.
- Usability – this is the key factor of a mobile website’s success, being able to anticipate the users’ needs and wishes and creating a version of your website that represents your original website and offers the same functionality and potential.
- User input – motion sensors and the size of a user’s tap on the display are all elements that should be taken into consideration when designing a website for mobile.
- Trustworthiness – a well built website must inspire trust and we always focus on protecting the privacy of your mobile website users.
- User’s context – where the user is can be used as a great source of information for building your mobile website. You can use your website to offer the user contact information and the ability to call from within the website or give him directions to your place of business.
- Feedback – as mobile applications developer, Sacramento Design Network will constantly gather feedback from the users and apply it to optimize your website’s qualities.
- Marketing – properly announcing users that you have a mobile website can increase the chances of them to reach out to you more often. This can be done through mobile marketing campaigns and by using your desktop/laptop targeted website to inform users of their options.
If you are still uncertain about how to build a mobile website or why to do it, make sure you contact us so that we can offer you professional advice and recommendations to increase the chances of your business getting more revenue, higher brand awareness and more clients from the mobile Web.