A mobile website is essential for a small business because of the growing use of smart devices. According to data from the Pew Research Center, people spend more time on their phones than they used to, and most users prefer using it rather than other devices to access information.

Your target audience is probably using smartphone devices more often than laptops or desktops to get in contact with small businesses like yours.

According to ComScore ,  In 2016, an estimated 3.12 billion people worldwide were using a mobile phone to access websites daily; that’s over 40 percent of the world’s population. That number has only been increasing in recent years and isn’t expected to slow. With that being the case, mobile phone usage is the best way for potential customers to learn about your business on the go.

Imagine if, of those 3.12 billion people, .01% of them found your website because they are in your location and are actively looking for your services? That’s 312,000 people visiting your site on a mobile phone. Imagine having 312,000 customers each month?

Although browsing a website on a desktop is probably the most advantageous for business owners who want their customers to experience the whole experience, an immersive mobile experience is also necessary. Some business owners may be reluctant to build a mobile site, thinking it’ll have little to no effect on their customers. However, if customers are already using their phones, find your website, and cannot browse it on their phones, they’re likely to look up a competitor.

This calls for a mobile version of your website to be easy to use/ Navigate on a smaller screen.

Many website themes automatically scale down to adjust for mobile phone access. Still, many others need further adjusting and testing to ensure that the images and text appear correctly at specific screen sizes.

Desktop sites can be expensive, but they often include a mobile version which may or may not include a complete redesign to display correctly on mobile devices. Websites are rarely created mobile-only, so designers may not need brand new content for creating its version. Instead, they can use what they’ve already made and scale things down for use on a mobile device. Crafting a mobile version of a site is also a lot faster than creating a desktop version from the beginning. The process often comes down to scale and placement.

Updating your mobile website with new content may be a streamlined, simple process depending on your designer. Some designers use plugins that make updating picture galleries/content/Videos much easier. Others may have other website maintenance plans that allow you to send them your updates, and they perform them without disrupting the structure of your pages.

Often, the pictures included in a website build are scalable to be viewed correctly on a mobile device, which is handled automatically by the theme. However, in some cases, especially with custom-built websites, each video/photo/ and article must be given instruction on how to scale on a mobile device.

If your site is set up correctly, people can find the information they need and contact you directly without navigating through multiple pages.

It will improve your conversion rate if your site is set up for mobile devices.

A customer that can easily find information and contact you from their phone is more likely to buy than someone who gets frustrated with a website’s navigability and loses interest.

You may read this article and say, “OK,” but how do I know if my mobile website performs the way it should? Does it look the way it should?

You can examine your competitor’s website and see what is working for them, and once you examine some key features used on their websites, you can use that as inspiration to relay to your web developer so that you have the same options.

If you check the top 2-3 websites owned by your competitors, I’m sure that one of those websites has an excellent mobile version that will help you determine what should be done on your website.

We look at Laurenraephotography.com and see how her team created a mobile-friendly site that attracts users from all over. The following video shows how her site is set up on a mobile device and why a mobile website is essential for small business.

Contact Buttons are great to use because they let your visitors communicate with you on their “Contact devices.” Think of how easy it would be to email someone or call someone after being prompted on your phone. Often on desktop websites, If you see a phone number, you have to retrieve your phone and dial a number, whereas mobile sites offer a “click to call” function that allows users to call to get in contact immediately.

Scaled Photography

Overall, the images and content are scaled to a level that is appropriate for mobile devices and displays properly. For example, where there is an image, it covers the screen in its entirety instead of filling the screen so that you can only see a portion. This is a prime example of a mobile site appropriately created.

Color Scheme

There is no doubt that this mobile version of the website comes from the desktop version. The styles aren’t very different, which helps users who discovered the site on a desktop and migrated to mobile surfing. It’s very important to ensure that your mobile website meshes well with the desktop version if you have one.

Page Load Time

All in all, we’ve discovered why a mobile website is essential for small business and needs to be intentionally created so that visitors can contact your business and have the smoothest experience overall with your business.