How to Get a Mobile Website (Plus 6 Reasons Why You Should)


I was exhausted from a long weekend. All I wanted to do was grab a bite to eat close to the highway and get home.

Finding a usable restaurant website was harder than I expected.

None of the sites were mobile-friendly. Hours, location, and phone number were hidden in tiny text. And the menu? Large PDF’s that slashed my phone’s battery life in half.

This doesn’t just happen with restaurants. It’s almost every small business website – whether you’re looking for a plumber, new shoes, or a haircut.

Has your small business caught on to mobile?

Think about your customers. How many of them browse your store on their phone? And how many do you think found your store through a quick online search? Probably a lot.

To back up the importance of mobile, here’s a couple of recent stats on the use of smartphones:

  • 56% of adults have smartphones (source)
  • 48% of users feel frustrated and annoyed when they visit non mobile-friendly sites (source)
  • 61% of users are likely to leave quickly if your site is not optimized well for mobile devices (source)

You’re losing customers. No mobile site is frustrating for your customers. Not only that, but here are six other reasons to convince you to get friendly with your mobile phone.

Six reasons your small business should go mobile:

1. Consumers are constantly on the go

You know how it is – you go from appointment to appointment, dropping kids off, picking up dry-cleaning. It’s a never-ending day. This means consumers are away from their computers and on their phones. And many of them consume information just on their mobile phone. Capture this movement and get on mobile!

2. Search engines like one site for all devices

Make your site easy for Google to crawl. This means having them crawl one site – not two. Using responsive design, a web design that automatically fits any screen, you give Google one site to crawl that’s viewable on any device.

3. Make it easy to read PDFs (by not using them)

PDF take up a lot of space on smartphones and can drain batteries. It’s why mobile users hate them. Whether you’re a restaurant with online menus or a service repairman with a brochure of services online, ditch your PDF for text to create a better user experience.


4. Make it easy to find important information quickly

When your site isn’t optimized for ipads, phones, and other mobile devices, it’s hard to find information fast. Users often have to tap to zoom, move the page around and find your tiny phone number. With a mobile site, important information is better displayed for mobile users. For example, a pizza place would have their phone number at the top of their mobile site and a promotion for free delivery.

5. Differentiate from your competitors

Want to one-up your local competition? Get a mobile site. If the other stores in your area aren’t on mobile, it’s an opportunity for you to attract new customers and wow them with your superior service.

6. It’s free – seriously!

Yep – it’s true. Mobile sites are free. Sure, you can find a designer to make a separate site, which would set you back thousands of dollars, or you can go with a free solution like the ones I listed below. While it may not match your branding perfectly, at least you’ll have a mobile presence. And it won’t cost you a penny.

There you have it. Six convincing reasons to build a mobile website for your business. And don’t worry – getting one isn’t a hassle.

Almost every day there’s a solution to get small business to go mobile. I mention three solutions below (and two of them are free), so there’s no reason not to go mobile.

Three solutions to get a mobile site:

  1. DudaMobile
  2. QR Mobilize
  3. Google’s free service

Mobile is the way of the future. The stats at the beginning of this article are going to increase. Don’t let your small business be left in the dust. Get started with a mobile website today. Your customers will thank you.

Michael Adams is the Marketing Manager at Fourtopper, a provider of restaurant web design. He’s the non-technical guy, so he invites you to see how the technical guys are bringing more to the table for restaurants, cafes, and bars.

Image courtesy mikogo

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3 Comments

  1. Very relatable post. Most people are browsing websites from mobile when they are on the go, and it is frustrating when it is not easy to access what you are looking for. Sallie Mae, should take note of this lol, I tried viewing their site from my phone to pay a bill and it was really challenging, I don’t even think I was able to get done what I needed to do.

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