As we approach the end of 2017, we are looking at the continued growth of mobile users. This year, over 4.7 billions people used their smartphone or tablet to browse the Internet. Yes, that is billions not millions. About 71% of the US population spent their time on a mobile device instead of a desktop. Mobile usage started to pass desktop usage back in 2014 but the gap between the two continues to grow dramatically.

What does it mean for your business?

Regardless of what you sell or offer, you have to make mobile marketing your number one focus when working on your company’s online presence. Based on the trends and recent reports, it no longer matters what you do, who your audience is, where you sell, … people will be looking at your website or searching for your company on a mobile device.

Recommendations to make your business a true Mobile Business

1. Your site should already be mobile responsive but have you looked at it lately on a smartphone or tablet? New devices come to the market all the time and, with them, they bring changes to screen size and resolution. Sometimes, it means the code needs to be adjusted to make it look perfect on a newly release device. Yes, this is an expense you never had to worry about before mobile devices took over the world. But upgrading your website is an expense you will have to deal with moving forward. Just think of it this way… you used to mail marketing postcards to prospective clients but now you spend some of your marketing money on your site or online marketing.
2. Often time, a site owner wants everything they see on their site’s version to show on the mobile device too. The truth is that is not a good way to develop responsive design. Good responsive design work means hiding elements that are not as important and that take too much “real estate” on a small screen like a phone. At times, it means changing images or text to make them more user-friendly on a mobile device. For this, you have to trust your webmaster to know what is best for your visitors or, at the very least, engage in a conversation with him or her.
3. Understand that laptops too have changed a lot recently. The difference between a tablet and a laptop is becoming more and more confusing with detachable keyboards and other gimmicks. This means that there possible coding adjustments needed on your site for laptop viewing.
4. Meet with your webmaster. Your site may be fairly new but a meeting to review possible changes on your site’s smartphone and tablet versions is worth the time.

Are you unsure on how your site fare on smartphones and tablets? We offer site analysis as well as responsive design and browser compatibility check. Call us at 707-794-9999 should you have questions about this service.