Do You Need A Mobile Website?
Whether or not to invest in a mobile friendly version of your website can be an easy decision, and one that should be evidence based.
First, have a look around you and observe how many of the people around you have their eyes glued to their Smartphones. Yes, many are viewing Facebook, texting, emailing, and maybe even making a phone call. Nah, probably not a phone call. It is also highly probable that they are surfing the web, don't you?
Consider your own "likes," don't you find it absolutely awesome when great restaurants like Donaleighs Irish Public House offer a mobile friendly version of their site to make it easy for you to see their menu on the go? Of course! Your customers would probably appreciate those same conveniences from your website.
Ok, so we accept that the mass majority of people have Smartphones and surf the web on them. Now let's put a lid on it and determine if a mobile website is without question a good investment for your business.
How do we do that?
Easy Peazy, Analytics! If you are a Media Suite customer you can login to your Command Centre 2.0 control panel and click the “Statistics” tab. Alternatively, you can log into your Google Analytics account directly. Here, you can see the Browsers and Operating Systems used to view your website and the percentage of traffic that these visitors make up. These are solid numbers tracked by the infamous Google Robots! If the number of mobile traffic is a signficant amount, then there is your answer.
So what is the tipping point?
Really, that's up to you, but our recommendation is about 20-30% relative to your traffic volume. For example, if you have 5000 unique visitors a month and your mobile traffic is only 10%, that is still 500 visitors you will be treating with a mobile site. Not bad.
- 0% - 5% ~ Not Yet...
- 5% - 10% ~ Watch Closely, check stats next month
- 10% - 20% ~ Start Planning
- 20% - 30% ~ Probably not a bad idea
- 30% > ~ Call us! Let's get it done!
Note: Percentages above are based on traffic of about 500 unique visitors a month. More traffic lowers the percentage as the volume of individuals would be higher.
Tips for what to look for in your stats...Mobile Operating Systems will appear as: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone