Why You Need A Mobile Website!

So WHAT Is Google Saying?

In that last few months of 2011, Google started openly talking about how it wants to see Mobile Websites performing in its search index and mobile ad platform. If you are a small business owner who relies on your website for fresh leads/contacts/customers then you need to take note!

3 main points to consider:

#1 Flash Based Websites – November 2011 – Google said it would limit ad serving to mobile devices if advertisers directed people to landing pages with a lot of Flash content. Basically, your adverts will NOT be shown!

#2 Google AdWords Customers – September 2011 – Connecting to mobile optimized landing pages will now be a major factor in determining ad placement. Google is publically stating that if your website is NOT optimised for Mobile – then YOUR AdWords costs are going to be HIGHER!

(Googe is spending Millions of pounds developing their AdWords platform for Mobile Search – as of the 17th January 2012 your campaigns now have WiFi targeting, and targeting by mobile operating system version!)

#3 Smartphone Users – December 2011 – Google announced a brand new spider that they are adding to the Googlebot line up – this bot is for Smartphone related content and is named “Smartphone Googlebot-Mobile.” 

In PLAIN English: Google is NOW actively crawling the Internet for local small business websites that can be viewed easily on a Smartphone and then storing these pages in it’s separate Mobile Search database. …now is the time to get your Mobile Friendly Website launched!

Google is making some basic recommendations:

Google is serious about the use of Mobile Search!

It is worth repeating this key point: “Anytime you have to zoom in to see the details of a website – it’s NOT Mobile friendly!”

WHAT About Designing For a Smaller Screen?

When it comes to real world evidence on the usability of Mobile Websites, one name will come up time and time again – Jakob Nielsen. Probably the world’s leading web usability consultant who holds a Ph.D. in human-computer interaction. Together with another expert in the field of web usability he formed the Nielsen Norman Group, a consultancy the produces evidence based usability studies and reports.

In 2011 they published the 2nd edition of their highly respected report:

Usability of Mobile Websites & Applications: 210 Design Guidelines for Improving the User Experience of Mobile Sites and Apps

You can read the outline – click here

4 main points to consider:

#1 – The first, and maybe most important, guideline for improving the mobile user experience: design a separate mobile site. Don’t expect users to access the same site from both desktop and mobile browsers.

#2 – The second point is more conceptual – and harder for some business owners/website designers to accept: when you have a smaller screen, you MUST limit the number of features to those that matter the most for the mobile user. No exceptions!

#3 – To have a successful mobile site, the obvious guideline is to design for the small screen. Sadly, some website designers don’t, and so users struggle to hit tiny areas that are much smaller than their fingers. The fat-finger syndrome will be with us for years to come!

#4 – Different platforms (desktop vs mobile) require different user interface designs. This, again, is the underlying reason that mobile sites perform better than “full sites” when used on a mobile device.

NB: Point #2 is hugely important as it feeds directly into the “mind-set” of the Smartphone user. When searching for a local business on a mobile phone, users do not want loads of information – they just want the key details about your business! For instance if you are a local plumber; what are your hours, services, charges and emergency contact number….

When searching on a mobile phone, users actually act differently – they are searching for “quickly accessible facts”. When it comes to researching more detailed information, for a holiday or major purchase etc. they use a desktop PC/Laptop/iPad…

YOUR mobile friendly website needs to be designed accordingly!

What Next?

Simply this: Review your current mobile strategy for 2012. Part of that will include just how the rapidly growing number of Smartphone users access YOUR website for key information about your business.

If you need a Mobile friendly website designed and created then contact me today – click here

I can create a Mobile website and either install it for you or send you the files and you can get your current webmaster/designer to install it.

Got a friend who runs a local business? Then why not send them a link to this article today….

Have a question? You may find the answer on my FAQ’s page – click here

Further reading:

- Usability of Mobile Websites & Applications: 210 Design Guidelines

- New targeting options available to AdWords mobile advertisers

- Will my ads show if my landing page includes Flash content?

- Defer Secondary Content When Writing for Mobile Users

- How Mobile Marketing Can Help Small Businesses with Jakob Nielsen

- 10 Reasons Why Mobile Is Hot