A year ago, it was revealed that there was now more mobile devices than people in the world.

 

At the time that the article was produced, mobile devices were also multiplying 5 times faster than humans. From this, it’s clear that there is great importance for businesses to be focussing their attention on the mobile device industry. Not only are mobile devices increasing rapidly, the number of websites is too; In 1997, there was just 1 million websites and 10 years later there was 150 million. This staggering increase from both mobile devices and websites left one problem – Mobile optimised websites.

Thankfully, the modern adaptations of web design has made making websites mobile optimised much easier than it has been previously!

 So what is a mobile optimised website?

 

Websites appear differently on a desktop computer or laptop than they would on a mobile device such as mobile phone or tablet. The primary reason for this is the difference in the size and layout of the screen – of course, a computer is much bigger and therefore than be spread out whereas on mobile devices, it needs to be laid out differently so that the user can still function the website on a different device. Most websites are still accessible even if they aren’t mobile optimised, however, the website will be optimised for a computer and therefore the text and links will be very small and it will be very small to navigate.

So why should it be mobile optimised?

    • The use of mobile internet – According to reports, 40% of mobile users will use their device for searching the internet and 50% of them will browse the internet each day –
    • This is obviously a big business potential and even more so; if a business doesn’t have a website
    • Price – Although some smart phones such as the iPhone are still very expensive, many are very Inexpensive and therefore provides an easier and more cost effective option than a computer. With many computer costing hundreds or even thousands, mobiles allow the user to do the same actions still on a small, portable device.
    • SEO – Having a mobile optimised site helps your website to increase its search rankings. Therefore, your business website will be above lots of your competitors when it is put into search engines such as Google. Last year smart phones Internet users overtook Laptops in the UK, which is now 66% of the UK population and this continues to grow. With this in
      mind, Google introduced a new algorithm in April 2015 preferring to promote websites that were mobile optimised for their customers. So if you have noticed you have dropped off page 1 of Google to page 2, 3 or even further back, this could be the main reason.
    • No need for an app – Most businesses that have a mobile optimised website will not have an app as apps are usually an alternative for businesses without mobile optimised sites to be accessed on all platforms. Apps are also expensive and time-consuming to both create and manage as well as having high amount of competition from other apps.

You must remember that first impressions are still essential on mobile optimised websites as they are on computer accessible ones – It must be appealing yet professional otherwise the user will simply go to another site instead and won’t look further into your website and business. You must also remember that whilst your website needs to be appealing, it shouldn’t be overcrowded and distract the user from the information on the site. A website that is too slow will also lead to the user simply going off the site so ensuring it is fast should be a priority!

Don’t forget that whilst a mobile optimised site does result in a smaller layout, don’t be too tempted to make the text very small as the size of the screen on the mobile device will make the text completely unreadable – On the other hand, don’t make the text too big either as this can easily lead to confusion. Having the correct balance between amount of text and links should be considered and make sure the user can easily return to the previous page.

Having an early start and getting your websites mobile optimised now will give you a competitive advantage and as more people use their mobile devices for browsing, the benefits to the business will be endless and keep you ahead of your competition.

If you have any questions about a new website existing website and making it mobile optimised to benefit your customers, please get in touch, we are always happy to help.