Mobile phone traffic is growing! And I don’t mean the use of Apps. More and more mobile traffic is coming to YOUR website. It won’t be long before internet access from smart phones and tablets overtakes desktop computers and laptops.
Are you ready for it?
Some Stats
- Google’s research shows that 28% of British mobile users have used their phone to make a purchase.
- 36% of the UK population now own a smartphone.
- 20 million people connect to the web from their mobile phone – up from 14 million in 2010.
- 53% of people who own a smartphone in the UK are using it while watching TV.
- 24% of British smartphone owners use their phones for comparing product price while in shops.
New Mobile Wedding Site
Today I’m happy to announce the new Easy Wedding Search mobile website.
We have had a mobile site for about 2 years now but it needed an update. From today, if you visit our website using an internet enabled smartphone or a tablet, you will be automatically taken to the new mobile site. Don’t worry, you can always go back to the desktop site if you prefer.
The new mobile site is much more user friendly and built on touch technology making it feel more like a native app (tech speak for the apps you download from the app store/market place).
As well as the mobile wedding directory, there are also new sections of the site that are now mobile friendly including this blog, the Top 100 Wedding Tweeters list and UK Wedding Blogs.
Prepare for the Mobile Rush
More and more brides and grooms will be researching their suppliers and looking for wedding information and inspiration on their phones, iPads and other mobile devices.
Have you checked how many visitors to your website are using their mobiles to see it? If you have Google Analytics installed then you can easily check.
Simply go to the ‘Visitors’ tab in the navigation and click on the ‘Mobile Devices’ report. You’ll be able to see how many visitors came to your site using a mobile and which device they used to access it.
Why a Mobile Site Is a Good Idea
Sure, mobile browsing technology is good enough to render a full website, but providing an experience tailored to mobile devices has lots of benefits including:
- It’s Faster! – People don’t like hanging about. They want information and they want it now! If they have to wait for minutes for your bulky image rich website to load on their slow mobile connection, they WILL leave. Mobile sites are much faster and suited for slower mobile connections.
- Usability Is Better – Full desktop websites are designed for big screens, keyboards and your point and click mouse. Navigating these sites on your phone can sometimes be tricky. You have to zoom in and out of webpages, try and click impossible drop down menus and use clunky features made using Javascript that aren’t supported fully on phones. With a tailored mobile site, moving from page to page is easy. Also, all the content fits on the smaller sized screen and so you don’t need to zoom in and out.
- Overcomes Bad Flash Support – Lots of smart phones and tablets now support Flash but to be honest it can be a bit clumsy to use. Providing a fast HTML mobile site would give the user a much nicer experience.
How To Easily Create A Mobile Website
If you don’t have the budget or the expertise to create a mobile site, there are some easier ways of having a mobile website presence. Here are a few:
Onbile
Onbile lets you easily create a mobile website with the basic details and features of your wedding company’s full website. After you have customised the design and content, it will spit out some code which you then add to your main website.
WP Touch
WP Touch is a plugin specifically for WordPress blogs. You have to pay for the PRO version but the free WP Touch plugin is good enough with plenty of options for customisation.
Google Sites
Google Sites now has mobile templates you can use. If you host your website with Google Sites or you simply want to create a mobile landing page then this might be for you.
Over To You
Can you recommend any other mobile technologies? What’s your mobile website strategy? Let me know in the comments below…
Get Free Email Updates:
or Free Updates Via RSS
What is RSS?
we have just moved over to mobile marketing with http://www.thinkmessage.co.uk and it is working really well we have also just had the new Purely Roses facebook page go live: http://on.fb.me/onUMDZ
Hi Jay. Thanks for posting about Think Messages, seems like a professional looking service and it doesn’t seem too expensive either. How are you guys using it exactly?