Websites on Mobile Phones
My earlier blog posts this week both discussed website design considerations - what browsers your website should "work" in as well as how wide your website should be. Well this post covers whether or not your Denver small business website should work well on mobile phones.
Should My Small Business Website Be Optimized for Mobile?
I frequently discuss mobile websites on this blog, because the time is coming when a lot more website visitors will be arriving to your Denver small business website on a mobile phone. That time isn't quite here. Unless you're a restaurant owner in Denver metro, I wouldn't be too concerned about mobile.
Most mobile browsers can accurately deliver existing websites as they appear on a desktop machine. The website will require scrolling and resizing in a mobile browser for a user to find the information that they want.
There are websites (usually huge, national websites) that are specifically optimized for mobile (e.g. m.cnn.com, m.weather.com). If you visit those websites by clicking them, you can see how they present the most common information that visitors are looking for in a straightforward fashion. Going through the trouble to do this for a Denver Small business would be a waste of time.
Mobile Phone Summary
Based on studies I've seen, most Denver small business owners can expect just 1%-2% of their traffic to be from mobile phones. Don't worry about optimizing your website for mobile phones. At least not yet.
How Does this Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?
You need to make sure that the majority of your potential clients have an optimized viewing experience when they arrive at your website. This will ensure that your marketing message is delivered in the most effective manner possible.
As of this moment, if you don't own a restaurant, you don't need to worry about how your website looks on a mobile phone. The percentage of visits from mobile phones is just too low at this time to dedicate any time to ensure mobile visitors have a great experience on your website.
As mobile phone visits continue to increase, this may change, but this will likely be another 12-24 months into the future. At that time, the Denver small business owner will have to be concerned about how their website looks and functions on a mobile phone.
Optimizing for Mobile now may be a waste of time
While optimizing for mobile now can help for the increasing mobile visits, the technology landscape can change so much in the next 1 to 2 years, that your efforts could be largely wasted. Instead, focus on providing a great user experience for desktop users with high screen resolutions - these are the visitors that make up nearly all of your website visitors.