Ever since the dawn of websites they have been getting bigger and better, certainly more creative with greater expression of an individual’s or organisation’s wares. There have been more images, higher resolution,and larger too. These images have been made more interactive as software power has increased. Now we have video, slide-shows and more.

Desktop screen sizes have become larger and larger. I remember the time when my screen was a lowly 13 inches with poor resolution, now its 19 inches and that is rapidly becoming too small as I need to get more and more on the screen at the same time, in order to be more “productive”. Website dimensions have increased as the average desktop screen size increased.

All these improvements have led to massive increases in the amount needed to download just one page, even with data compression and page optimisation.

Then along comes the mobile revolution.

No longer are people accessing websites with huge screens and unlimited fast bandwidth. No, they are using their smartphones with, by comparison, incredibly small screens.

So here are some relevant questions. You’ll see why in a minute.

Have you ever looked at YOUR website on your mobile phone? If not close down your wireless link and using just your mobile service do it now.

Is it easy to read without zooming in?

Can the links be easily clicked without the dreaded “fat finger” effect?

Is the menu actually useable?

Do all the photos download in just a couple of seconds when you are on 3G or as in the case of most of Derbyshire (and probably anywhere outside big cities) 2G?

Is your website free of flash?

Is your page immediately viewable without you having to scroll vertically and, even worse, horizontally?

Can your viewers contact you by phone from the homepage with a simple button to “tap”?

If the answer to these questions is NO then this is a problem for at least 2 big reasons:-

1. If you do any print advertising to drive traffic to your website eg special offers as according to  Google 71% of people do a search on their mobile device to find your website BECAUSE they saw your ad in a newspaper/magazine/etc…
(Source:The Mobile Movement Study, Google/Ipsos OTX MediaCT , June 2011
http://www.peakweb.net/gi1

2. If you do PayPerClick advertising this is a problem because mobile users can’t access any of your information (even though you have paid for the click thru) and ALSO because Google openly states that they will penalize and charge business more who do PayPerClicks to mobile unfriendly sites…
(source: Google Project Manager,  David Nachum
http://www.peakweb.net/monow)

I’m sure you know how important having a mobile site is, since Morgan Stanley analysts have said by 2015 mobile web will be bigger than desktop internet… that on average 1 in 7 searches are done on a mobile device currently.. that 1 in 3 mobile searches have local intent…  and 9 out of 10 searchers have taken action as a result of a mobile phone search.

If you DO have a mobile friendly site, is your MAIN site mobile aware? By this I mean that if a mobile user goes to your main site it detects the user is on a mobile browser and automatically redirects them to your mobile site.

If you don’t know whether your site is mobile friendly … look now

If you have a mobile site check out how “Google friendly” it is at http://www.peakweb.net/gomo.

 

If you need help you can always contact Peakweb on 01773 318033 or Paul on 07834 763169.

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