OK….so you already know you need to have a mobile website, or landing page, but where do you start?
Mobile users hold grudges and move on if they aren’t satisfied…and quickly! In fact, according to a March 2011 study done by Compuware, 61% are unlikely to return to your mobile site if they had trouble or if your site was too hard to use. 40% said they would visit a competitor’s site instead, and 19% said they would have a negative overall perception of your business if they had a bad mobile experience with your site.
If you build it right you can achieve greater success. Research shows that web retailers could increase consumer engagement by 85% with a mobile-specific website. 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites.
So, I’m going to share 5 best practices to keep in mind when building your mobile website.
KISS – that’s right…Keep It Super Simple! Think about it. When you’re on your mobile device you are most likely on-the-go. When you want some sort of information, you need it quick and you don’t want to have to hunt all over for it. Make sure that your navigation and layout is simple. Don’t try to include everything from your main website into your mobile site. People searching mobile are only looking for basic information.
Design for Thumbs…not Mice. Again, you’re not putting together a site that someone is going to spend a ton of time on. You want to make it as easy and simple for them to navigate as you can. If they can click-to-call you with their thumb or find a map to your location with their thumb, then you are on the right track.
Prioritize your Content – Give your mobile site user the most often needed information first. Maybe it’s just your telephone number. Maybe it’s your address. Whatever it is make sure that you come up with your own order of priorities for the information you are providing. You can use Google Analytics from your main website to see what is most often being searched on mobile devices and this should help you in sorting your content.
Use Uniquely Mobile Features – make sure that you’re not building your mobile presence in the same way you would for desktops. Use the functionality of what a mobile device provides to enhance your engagement with your customers. For example, mobile devices use GPS. Keep that in mind if you are offering content that could be relevant to specific geographical areas. Don’t waste your site user’s time by giving them content that’s not relevant to their location. Let’s say you have multiple locations for your business. Through location-based technology in mobile you can provide the most relevant location of your business to a user that is searching for your company. Another way to use mobile features is to provide content that would be relevant to what the user would actually be doing at the time they are searching for you on a mobile device.
Make it easy to convert – Because people are most likely out and on-the-go when they are accessing your mobile site, so their ability to get distracted and move on is high. So, if you are collecting information in a web form – make it short and sweet. Don’t require a lot of fields to be completed because it can be difficult and take too much time. Think of the bare minimum that you may need. Make it easy to call you! Maybe put a click-to-call button at the very top of your mobile site. Wherever you place it make sure it is very easy to see.
So now you have 5 best practices for putting together your mobile website. Just keep these in mind when building your site and your users will have a much better mobile experience and you will get a much higher conversion.
