We hear this question a lot from our clients because we talk about mobile devices a lot when we’re planning a website or a new web development project in Los Angeles or Seattle.
The answer isn’t complicated at all- the fastest growing number of internet users are getting online via a smartphone, tablet, or other web enabled device. When you look at the actual numbers that are being put out by the mobile device industry, its easy to understand why this is such an important part of the web and any businesses’ approach to succeeding there.
Android recently announced that they are activating over 500,000 devices A DAY. That’s right- 500k smartphones and tablets being activated a day. And based on the last numbers I’ve seen, that represents only around 40% of the smartphone and tablet market. Throw in Apple’s estimates of 300,000 a day (which includes all iOS devices), and this is a staggering volume of people who could be accessing a businesses’ website online.
Any business I know would be delighted to have 500,000 visitors to their store in one day. They also would be in a panic trying to prepare for that kind of traffic. While many websites won’t actually experience that huge of a volume of traffic in a day, it is important to try and capture as much of that user base as possible when designing and building a website.
How do you prepare for that?
- Create websites with mobile friendly tech, coding, and layouts. No mouse over features, no Flash (Apple still has a grudge with Adobe), and faster loading times.
- Build websites with special rules for smaller screen sizes and resolution, or based on particular browser types.
- Make your content useful for people on the go- directions, clear phone numbers, maps, bigger buttons
- Engage with applications. There are dozens of great ideas out there that haven’t been built yet. Creating a mobile device app to promote a product or industry isn’t for everyone (they can easily run over $20k) but they can have huge impacts.
There are a lot more things that we do, but your website should be able to handle them all. Some web design companies with a lesser skill set will build two versions of a site on different domains (.com vs .mobi for instance) and call it being mobile ready. Not! People want to visit the same site at home that they could on their computer and playing games with domains is just a cop out.
Give us a call if you’re in Los Angeles or Seattle and are looking for a great website design company to help you build your mobile friendly websites.
