Attract And Retain Customers With A Mobile Web Site
Posted by Seth Bracewell on Monday Mar 19, 2012 11:09 pm
Earlier today I went through the process of enabling this website for mobile browsers. Using the Well Site Studio platform it was a brief process, but it did require quite a bit of testing to make sure all the pages displayed correctly as content gets converted from a 980px wide canvas to 320px.
While you do sacrifice some visual elements, having a mobile-optimized website can be vital in today's environment where it is becoming second nature to grab the iPhone or Android while on the go to find a restaurant, book a hotel, do some banking...the list is endless. That's why, if you are offering some sort of service on your main website, such as offering quotes, running specials or selling products, it's a very good idea to have a mobile website that mirrors that functionality. Displaying your main website on a mobile browser just doesn't work for the following reasons:
- Scrolling display is a pain any way you look at it. As I mentioned, typical websites are sized to be at least 980px wide, a mobile browser is 320px wide. You're either going to be zooming out in which case the text is difficult to impossible to read, or you are only viewing 20% or so of the site at a time.
- Many full-browser features and interactive behaviors are not available. I'll mention Flash only briefly, but Apple mobile products don't support it. I avoid Flash anyway, but it's worth a mention. More importantly, modern websites use actions beyond the simple 'click' to interact with their visitors. For example, you lose the ability to hover over an element with your mouse, which is a common behavior that web designers use to interact with site visitors.
- You lose some advantages that mobile has to offer. For example, if you have a retail location, getting directions to your store is a breeze with Google maps location services. Or customers can call you easily with links that automatically dial your phone number.
- It sends a bad message. This is the most important reason. Even if your website "works" on a mobile browser, it doesn't give your visitors a sense of confidence that they can do what they came to do. A mobile-enabled website tells your visitors browsing your site on their smartphones that you have created a site for their purposes and that your site will do what they need it to do.
So, if you haven't got a mobile website yet, let us know and we'll be happy to set you up. And, if you get a chance, be sure to check out the mobile version of this site.
