Statistically speaking, the likelihood of your website being mobile-friendly is very slim. When browsing from a mobile device, 96-percent of consumers say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices. The reported stats vary, but 60-80% of brands don’t have a mobile-optimized website. According to recent Google research, this is an incredibly frustrating experience for customers and can have a negative impact on future transactions with the brand:
- 61% of users said that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they’d quickly move on to another site
- 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn’t mobile-friendly
- 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
- 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
- 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business
Mobile internet browsing is only predicted to increase over time: the likelihood of a potential customer’s first experience with your brand being through a mobile device is very high. (By 2014, mobile internet usage should surpass desktop usage.) Creating a mobile version of your site is worth the time and investment.
Where do you start?
If you are considering an overhaul of your website anyway, consider a responsive design approach and think about the mobile site first before translating it into a desktop experience. The Boston Globe site is an example of responsive design:
Source: Wikipedia, Boston Globe
If you are looking for a quicker fix to take your current site to make it viewer friendly on mobile devices, create a mobile-optimized experience with only the content mobile viewers are typically seeking:
- 76% of consumers said they want to be able to find a company’s location or operating hours.
- 61% said they’d like to click a button to call a company.
- 54% would like the ability to send an email.
