Make Your Website Mobile Compatible: Responsive Design

Do you know where your clients are? Although some of them may be walking by your shorefront or googling your services on their laptop, most of them are reaching into their pockets for their cellphones. Phone in hand, they are looking for your business. When they find your website, will they have to zoom in and out as they struggle to hit small hard-to-see links? Will they eventually get discouraged, close their browser and move on with their lives? Or, will they have an incredibly enjoyable and informative experience because you have made your website mobile compatible?

Your Customers Are On Visiting Your Web site From Their Phones

According to Dzinepress, eight out of 10 Internet users access the web over their phones. One out of every seven searches are done on a phone, and four out of five smartphone users shop on their cellphones in the U.S., according to MozakDesign. According to iBlogZone, 40 percent of those people claim that they will turn to a competitors site if they don’t have a positive mobile experience. The importance of a user-friendly mobile-compatible Web site is clear from the numbers, but creating the perfect site isn’t always easy.

Start With A Decision

Decide whether you want to copy your original site or make a completely new one. If you decide to copy your current site, certain design elements may not transfer easily to a smaller screen, and these elements may need to be adjusted to make your mobile site attractive and compelling. In most cases, you will also need to drop a lot of content. According to TechRadar, identifying the important content and removing superfluous copy is one of the most critical parts of this process.

Although you may end up removing parts of your website, you will get to add a lot of great features at the same time. Mobile sites can provide a higher degree of functionality than most desktop sites. With the click of a button, prospective clients can get directions to your store, call you, add your app to their phone or add your details to their address book. According to TechRadar, with the right knowledge, you can even customize your mobile site so it offers different products and services to different users based on their location.

How To Make The Change

If you are comfortable with programming languages like HTML, WML, Compact HTML and XHTML Mobile profile, you can easily make a mobile-compatible website, and you may even be able to add features like live chat, which can increase conversion rates by 20 percent, according to LivePerson.com.

Thanks to Google, making your website mobile compatible can now be a DIY project regardless of how tech savvy you may or may not be. The Internet giant recently paired up with DudaMobile to create a free mobile site builder. According to a review at iBlogZone, using the program is simple.

Users simply need to type in the URL, and then they are lead through a process that allows them to select themes and tailor features to meet their needs. The program makes it easy to upload logos, graphics and links, and it only takes a few minutes to complete.

Once your mobile site is live, take a few extra steps to ensure that your clients can find you. Ideally, according to hireawiz.com, you should update your info in any relevant databases like Yelp, and you may even want to hire a mobile SEO guru to help tweak your site’s final details.