WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GET MOBILE
If you're a smartphone user, you're undoubtedly familiar with the pain of pinching and scrolling your way across full-size websites on your phone. Chances are you've also attempted to visit a website on a mobile device only to realize that it won't open because it was built with Flash and your phone doesn't support it.
Now imagine it's your potential customers pinching, scrolling and muddling their way through your website. If your website isn't optimized for mobile, it could have a greater impact on your bottom line than you realize. You may only have a few brief moments to capture customers’ attention while they ride the train or wait for a lunch date to arrive, and you won't have very long before they give up and move on if they can’t easily navigate your site.
And let's face it – mobile is here to stay. With consistent year-over-year growth in smartphone adoption, 48% of all Canadian cell phone users owned smartphones as of 2012. Even more striking, in Canada 69% of all cell phone users age 18–34 now use smartphones, while tablet ownership quadrupled between 2011 and 2012.
Combine those stats with the knowledge that Canadians also consume more online content in the world than anyone else while coming second only to Americans in how much time they spend online every month, and the imperative becomes clear for you business: it's time for your web presence to get mobile-friendly.
That said, here are a few tips to help you figure out how to best optimize your website for mobile.
Don't Think of Mobile as an Add-On
While it may seem like you can simply bolt a mobile strategy onto your existing website strategy, you should try to think about your business' mobile and desktop web experience more holistically.
Start thinking about the content on your site beyond the web page – how can you better structure your web content from the get-go so it can be more easily repurposed on multiple platforms? How will you ensure that you deliver a consistent
Now imagine it's your potential customers pinching, scrolling and muddling their way through your website. If your website isn't optimized for mobile, it could have a greater impact on your bottom line than you realize. You may only have a few brief moments to capture customers’ attention while they ride the train or wait for a lunch date to arrive, and you won't have very long before they give up and move on if they can’t easily navigate your site.
And let's face it – mobile is here to stay. With consistent year-over-year growth in smartphone adoption, 48% of all Canadian cell phone users owned smartphones as of 2012. Even more striking, in Canada 69% of all cell phone users age 18–34 now use smartphones, while tablet ownership quadrupled between 2011 and 2012.
Combine those stats with the knowledge that Canadians also consume more online content in the world than anyone else while coming second only to Americans in how much time they spend online every month, and the imperative becomes clear for you business: it's time for your web presence to get mobile-friendly.
That said, here are a few tips to help you figure out how to best optimize your website for mobile.
Don't Think of Mobile as an Add-On
While it may seem like you can simply bolt a mobile strategy onto your existing website strategy, you should try to think about your business' mobile and desktop web experience more holistically.
Start thinking about the content on your site beyond the web page – how can you better structure your web content from the get-go so it can be more easily repurposed on multiple platforms? How will you ensure that you deliver a consistent