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Why It’s Important for Your Small Business or Restaurant to Have a Mobile-Friendly Website

by | Nov 21, 2022

By Jason NewBorn

The Internet is ingrained further and deeper into our lives as time passes. not only in how we go about our daily lives, but also in how we do business. People's methods of information search are one of the major trends. Ten years ago, desktop computers were the primary means of information research. Due to the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone, more and more individuals are now using their mobile devices for internet browsing and informational purposes. If you are a small business owner, you MUST recognize this trend and adjust to it if you want your company to thrive online. If your company's website is not mobile-optimized, you are likely losing consumers as a result since they are attempting to access your desktop website on their mobile devices, which is just not a nice browsing experience.

This article will examine the key distinctions between desktop websites and those that have been optimized for mobile devices before addressing why your business MUST have a mobile-optimized website and how to benefit from it. The outcome will give you what can only be called an unfair advantage over your rivals! Can your company accommodate a rise in customers? Find out by reading on!

How do desktop and mobile devices differ?

Without getting into specifics, a website that appears attractive on a desktop computer may not necessarily appear the same on a mobile device. Your business website may appear amazing on a desktop display that is 20 inches across or more, but how would this look on a smartphone that may be only 4 inches across (or less!)

Most likely, the size of your entire website will be reduced to accommodate the mobile screen. As a result, all text will typically be quite small. It would appear to many that you are attempting to “surf from 35 000 feet.” You could zoom in, sure, but that would need you to constantly scroll left, right, up, and down to discover anything. This typically takes a LOT longer to complete, and there is a significant probability that your consumer may become impatient and find another option (usually with your competition!).

A mobile-friendly website eliminates the need for zooming. The amount of text that must be scrolled left and right to read is maintained to a minimum, if not entirely absent. Information is considerably easier to find since text is simple to understand. This will be much appreciated by customers! You'll understand why it works once you notice the change.

The entire size of the webpage is another factor. The majority of desktop webpages have sizeable file sizes. Why is this crucial? These websites typically load rapidly on a desktop but far more slowly on a mobile device. This will result in the customer waiting longer for your website to load while staring at a blank screen. Additionally, this continuous download will exhaust their available downloads unless they have an unlimited subscription.

FACT: Most web visitors will simply give up and move on to the next site if it takes longer than five seconds to load.

Because the overall file sizes are substantially less, a mobile-optimized website for your business will load up incredibly rapidly, typically in less than 3 seconds. Then, your clients can find what they're seeking for quickly.

Most online mobile searches are in fact local!

If you own a restaurant in, let's say, New York, you probably don't worry too much about people looking for restaurants in London or Paris. But you should be aware that when individuals conduct searches on their smartphones, they are seeking local solutions. This indicates that local customers are seeking for you! Google even claimed that about 80% of mobile device queries were for local information. This is even more significant given that, according to a report, 71% of mobile users who conducted local searches took action within 24 hours of their search!

The figures are as follows:

1 BILLION local searches in 2009

Over 1.5 billion searches were made in 2010

2011 is expected to see close to 2.4 billion searches.

2012 is expected to see 3.5 billion searches.

This indicates that an increasing number of people are using mobile devices to conduct local searches. This also means that your small business MUST serve them, and the best way to accomplish it is via a mobile-optimized website.

Flash is not really Flash!

Many desktop websites use Flash programming to create truly fantastic page elements like photo montages. Flash is NOT supported by any Apple products, including the iPhone, and won't display on them. If your desktop website is entirely Flash-based, iPhone users won't be able to access it. What will they do next? To your rivals, who most likely already have a mobile website.

The Ideal Mobile-Friendly Website

Here is a list of qualities that the ideal mobile website should have:

1) Simple to Read – As was already mentioned, there won't be much need to scroll left or right on a mobile page. The entire text will fit on the screen of the mobile device and be large enough to read without having to zoom in. This will make it simple to access information about your company (such as the menu, special offers, location, etc.).

2) Automatic redirection – If your company already has a desktop website, and the server notices that a user is attempting to view it on a mobile device, it will immediately switch the user to the mobile version of the website, typically without the user's knowledge. Your main website's subdomain will house the mobile version. If your primary website is www.mysite.com, for instance, the mobile version might be m.mysite.com, and this would be shown automatically.

3. Useful features – A decent mobile website should have a lot of useful features designed exclusively for mobile users to increase its value to your company. The most practical is a “Click to Call” button, which is only a button that is prominently displayed on the mobile website. The user only needs to click or tap the button once to contact your company immediately. On a desktop website, the user would have to manually enter the phone number or memorize it (assuming they could even locate it!). They find it simpler and are more inclined to call your company when there is a “Click to Call” button.

On a desktop website, there will be a ton of information and content that users can read. 4) Only pertinent information is displayed. On a mobile page, though, there will be more data to sort through. Therefore, only data that is pertinent to a mobile user should be shown. A smartphone user looking for a decent restaurant, for instance, isn't interested in visiting a website with a ton of bells and whistles. They likely only need to know the location of the restaurant, its menu, any current promotions, and most crucially, how to get in touch with them (click-to-call?). This results in a smaller webpage with more pertinent content displayed.

If your small business has a website, you MUST also have a mobile-optimized version to accommodate the population that is increasingly using their mobile phones to access the internet. The worst thing that may happen is that you'll have to increase employee numbers in order to keep up with demand because you'll have so many more clients!

Do you require a mobile version of your company website? QMobile Design [http://m.qmobiledesign.com] specializes in creating unexpectedly affordable mobile-optimized versions of desktop websites. Go online to [http://QMobileDesign.com] with your smartphone in hand. Let us manage all of your requirements for mobile marketing and mobile internet!

Website where this article was found: ezinearticles.com/expert/Doug Arnold/490299