“This is the time for us; now is the time for us to get behind this…
We understand that the new rule is “Mobile First.” – Eric Schmidt,
Google CEO
“One-third of all Google searches via the mobile web pertain to some aspect of the searcher’s local environment.” – Diana Pouliot, Director of Google Mobile Advertising
By 2013, Google expects that 50% of all internet traffic will be from mobile devices. The smartphone industry is growing faster than any segment of technology in history.
It is mandatory to have a smartphone-enabled website in order to have mobile searchers find you. A lot of effort and funding is going towards “find a business near me” technology. If you owned a restaurant, wouldn’t you want to reach the Blackberry user that performed a search on their phone to “find restaurants near me?”
Would it not benefit you to reach those with GPS that use Google maps? Practically every business and service can increase revenue by having a smartphone-enabled site. The applications are far-reaching. Virtually any product or service that relies on direct consumer contact would be able to saturate the market and reach consumers anywhere and everywhere.
Mobile sites are designed to provide the best possible viewing experience exclusively on handheld devices, including iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Kindle, etc. All pages must be scaled to read easily on a small screen. Most content is presented to facilitate thumb-scrolling, the most accepted method of reading content on a mobile device.
The number of “hallways” are reduced to help keep the viewer organized. The navigation buttons are placed where they are easily accessible. Since many devices do not have clear “back” buttons, these are provided on the site where appropriate. Flash is never used, as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has banned it from the iPhones, citing performance and bandwidth concerns. All websites must have detection and redirect scripting that senses which device is being used and sends the customer to the best site optimized for their device.
Over 70% of the world’s population now has a mobile phone, that’s over 5 billion mobile subscribers, and in places like the US, it’s 9 in 10 people.
So why aren’t more businesses optimizing their websites to mobile phone technology? Most website design firms have not pushed website owners because they know that the websites they have already created have not delivered the ROI the owner hoped for. Therefore, it is difficult for them to go back and revisit them about adding another piece of technology.
Since it is new technology and one whose full potential has not been realized, many smaller design firms have not taken the initiative to learn the new programming language. Many are waiting for technology which is expected to launch in a few years that will enable smartphones to access the internet and websites to display as automatically as desktops do now. Then there will be no need to learn the programming modifications.
Savvy business owners are reaching out and finding web developers to get to their target market where they live- on their smart phones and on the go.
For businesses wishing to gain a competitive advantage, a smartphone-enabled website now presents one of the most high impact means of expanding a client base and securing greater sales volume. Look at your competition. Lead your marketplace and establish your company where your prospects live before they do.
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