Do you need a mobile version of your website?

Posted on Tags: Web, Ecommerce

The quick answer is yes, however think about it - are people really going to be actively browsing the web on a smart phone for your products and services?

• If you're a restaurant - definitely.
• If you have an information website - probably.
• If you have a B2C ecommerce site - maybe (price checking probably although mobile commerce is clearly rising).
• If you are B2B then probably not - you could make assumptions that they want specific information (such as your address).

So taking that into consideration what should you be doing now?

Well, if you're lucky enough to have an analytics package on your existing site, what does it tell you? You can find out if mobile devices have been accessing your site easily enough. It'll probably be a low percentage of overall visits, but the key thing to investigate would be the growth of the percentage. Is it growing rapidly month on month?

Most relatively modern websites will degrade and work, of a fashion, in a mobile browser. (I'm not including tablet devices in this as they work pretty much the same as a laptop does although the Apple iPad won't display anything using Flash). Why not check your website later on your smart phone? You may want to consider a few tweaks here and there.

The key is to ask yourself "what's important to a mobile user?" and then present your content accordingly or if you have the budget; the Holy Grail is to create a complete version of your website which is mobile friendly in its entirety. When a mobile user lands on your domain name the device being used will be detected and the user directed to a specific version of the website.

The latest industry thinking is to design for mobile first and use clever technologies to enhance rather than using technologies to degrade to a phone.

However, the advice given today may be totally different in the near future. Web browsing habits are changing, the internet is getting faster and what people do today will undoubtedly be different tomorrow!