Most companies have official websites. However, very few of them own mobile websites. In as much as this wasn’t a problem a couple of years ago, it is increasingly becoming important for companies to maintain fully functional mobile versions of their websites. Following are the top 5 reasons why you need a mobile website:
1. Most Consumers Own Smartphones
Smartphones are now a fixture in popular culture. People are using these phones to browse through the Internet and do their online shopping. Smartphones are also used by people to pass time when idle. This means that it is important to have a mobile website especially if you want to tap into this new market of smartphone users.
2. Mobile Users Demand Simplified and Quick Loading Browsing
Websites that load quickly and contain many sections and functions are more popular among mobile users. You need to ensure that your mobile web design produces simple, straight forward and easily navigable websites.
3. Exploding Mobile Traffic
Mobile phone devices are increasingly making up more of the website traffic received globally. This simply means that people today access the Internet more often through their mobile phone devices than through regular computers, laptops and Macs.
Actually, if you are to tap into this emerging market, you will need to make your website easily accessible via mobile phones. Alternatively, you could create a new mobile website and optimize it for search engines for more hits.
4. Website Visitors are Using Mobile Phones to Plan and Execute Tasks
Most industry leaders have discovered that website visitors these days tend to plan and execute tasks from the comfort, convenience and portability of their mobile phone devices.
This is especially so in the tourism industry where mobile devices are used to plan trips. In as much as printed publications are important, you will also need functioning mobile websites that people can use at any time and in any place without any undue hindrances.
5. Mobile Websites Reduce the Need of Having Separate Mobile Apps for Different Mobile Platforms
The market share of Microsoft OS, Palm, RIM and Symbian has been shrinking for some time now. iOS and Android control the lion’s share, RIM (Blackberry) holds onto the corporate world while Microsoft is expected to make a comeback with Windows 8. On the other hand, Symbian and Palm are dying out.
In this light, anyone who owns a website knows how daunting it can be to design separate mobile apps for the 4 major operating systems mentioned above.
Instead of spending so much time and money on creating separate mobile apps, it is more logical to use your limited resources to get one mobile website. The mobile site will give you more flexibility in the sense that it can be displayed on any mobile phone device, regardless of whether they are Windows phones, Blackberries, iPhones or Android tablets.
Overall, the important thing is to determine how visitors use your website and which info they may be looking for. After that, you can create a mobile website that will cover all the needs and demands of your visitors.
