subject: Losing Traffic Because Your Website Is Not Designed For Mobile Devices? Let A Web Design Firm Help! [print this page] Texting while driving has thrust mobile devices into the media spotlight. However, consumers arent only using mobile devices to text family and friends. Millions of consumers are using the devices to surf the web, check out business websites, interact with owners of virtual storefronts and purchase products. As tech specialists at experienced Philadelphia web design firms know, if your website isnt mobile device friendly, you could be losing customers.
Growing Mobile Device Industry Reshaping Web Design
Just how big is the mobile device industry? Morgan Stanley Market Trends reports that more than 50 percent of electronic products purchased in 2012 will not have a wired port. By 2015, as many as 7.4 billion mobile devices will be on the market according to ABIResearch. Furthermore, Prosper Mobile Insights reports that 25 percent of consumers have made an online purchase using a mobile phone. Additionally, 200 million of Facebooks 500 million active users access the social media network with a mobile device. Of Twitters active users, 46 percent use a mobile device to access the network.
Log into social media networks to announce discounts your business is currently running at your website and you might receive a flood of website traffic (for awhile). Thats the good news. However, if your website isnt designed for mobile devices, people who read your discounts announcement then click over to your website might have to scroll for several minutes to find your order form. Then they might have to spend several moreminutes scrolling down the order form to fill out their shipping information. Before long, these prospective customers may tell their friends that your website is cumbersome, thereby costing you valuable website traffic.
Reason for this is that traditionally designed websites look bulky on mobile devices. In addition, only bits of the website may show on a mobile device screen. For example, a site for a web design Philadelphia firm that has Philadelphia web design company helps regional small business achieve record profits as its opening line of copy might only show Philadelphia web design company on the entire screen of a mobile device. Unless youre lucky enough to find millions of mobile device users who absolutely love scrolling through long bulky lines of copy, the design at your website could cost you customer traffic and sales.
Fortunately, theres a way around this. When prospective customers visit your website they should be able to view all data, including images and copy, on the page without having to use horizontal scroll buttons. Forms should be short and only require essential customer information. Links on your website should also be placed far enough apart to make it easy for customers using mobile devices designed with touch screens to click on the link they want without their finger accidentally hitting another link, thereby sending them to a page they may not want to visit.
Its also important that your websitebe easy to navigate on different types of mobile devices. For example, theres the iPhone, Blackberry, Motorola Droid, Samsung Android and the Palm Plus. Consumers also surf the web using handheld devices like Nook and Kindle e-readers. Your companys website needs to be user-friendly for each of these and other actively used devices. The payoff can yield you more word-of-mouth customer referrals, spikes in customer traffic and more profitable customer sales.