Statistically speaking, the likelihood of your website being mobile-friendly is very slim. When browsing from a mobile device, 96-percent of consumers say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices. The reported stats vary, but 60-80% of brands don’t have a mobile-optimized website. According to recent Google research, this is an incredibly frustrating experience for customers and can have a negative impact on future transactions with the brand:

  • 61% of users said that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they’d quickly move on to another site
  • 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn’t mobile-friendly
  • 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
  • 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
  • 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

Mobile internet browsing is only predicted to increase over time: the likelihood of a potential customer’s first experience with your brand being through a mobile device is very high. (By 2014, mobile internet usage should surpass desktop usage.) Creating a mobile version of your site is worth the time and investment.

Where do you start?

If you are considering an overhaul of your website anyway, consider a responsive design approach and think about the mobile site first before translating it into a desktop experience. The Boston Globe site is an example of responsive design:

Source: Wikipedia, Boston Globe

If you are looking for a quicker fix to take your current site to make it viewer friendly on mobile devices, create a mobile-optimized experience with only the content mobile viewers are typically seeking:

  • 76% of consumers said they want to be able to find a company’s location or operating hours.
  • 61% said they’d like to click a button to call a company.
  • 54% would like the ability to send an email.
When taking the mobile-optimized experience approach, you will want to identify the two to three things that are most important for your brand and focus on those things from a messaging and action standpoint. Simplicity is key. For design, start with your key messages and desired actions, consider the standard screen size as 320×480 pixels, prioritize and plan for experiences at the top and bottom of the page (and maybe throughout, recognizing that people will be scrolling), and try to limit the need to scroll for information on homepage (though scrolling on secondary pages is fine).
(And, yes, we are aware that our agency site is not mobile-optimized. You know that saying about the cobbler’s children? We embody that proverb.)