Mobile Friendly Web Design & It's Importance To Small Business

All very dramatic I hear you say...Well it is Google we are talking about here, where you expecting anything different?

Ok lets explore some cliche's, I love this little red herring below.

"Am I going to fall off the face of the earth if I don't update my current website and get a website designed for mobile?"

Well you won't disappear totally but as time goes by Google will deliver mobile web design first and everything else secondary, it only logical. So eventually you are bound to feel the ground slip under your feet.

The rational in that statement always gets me if I'm honest, everyone is worried about disappearing off Google searches but never mind that maybe a new key customer is currently fumbling their way around your website while reading this just after you paid for an Adword campaign to get them onto your website that doesn't render right on a mobile. And there they are trying to find your email address or get your number to call you, to offer you business. Crazy isn't it?

Yes, you heard correct, some of you business owners  out there are actually paying Google to send potential customers to your website that actually doesn't work right on a smart phone. 

My question to you, as a business owner...
Would you like better engagement from your customers?
OK here is a different question, as a business owner would you like your customers to navigate your website in a much more user friendly way?
Last question, do you simply want your customers to have a good time while visiting your website?

It is much more important to realise if your website is not designed for a smart phone or tablet it is more than likely having a serious impact on your enquiries and sales, so falling off a Google cliff is only part of your problem. More importantly you are frustrating the life out of your customers both existing customers & new customers in an age when they need and want to find things like phone numbers, contact details  & a simple map, quickly and easily.

Glad to hear it matey but have you ever looked at your website on a phone?

Ok this is the scary bit for me. I have done a survey and have asked small business owners a couple of logical questions

1. Have you a smart phone?
   
2. Do you search the internet on the smart phone?
   
3. Have you looked at your own website on the smart phone?
   

Answers to questions 1 & 2 was YES!!

OK wait for it, drum roll..........

Would you believe that 8 out of 10 small businesses have said NO to question 3...... 

Come on people it is just getting silly now, this is your shop window and you need to at least look at it......
All the nervous giggles are starting to accumulate down along the back rows as we move along.....

Take positive action!

Here are 10 simple steps to improve your web design - 

1. Track activity to your website, use google analytics to help you so you can see the good things and improve the bad things.
2. Think more like your customers when viewing your web design, what functions do they need, eg click to call, map etc.
3. Keep things neat and tidy, loud colours that require sunglasses are a no no. Easy to use navigation is a big plus.
4. I know this is basic but check for grammar and spelling mistakes, you'd be surprised at the amount of websites containing bad grammar.
5. Keep your information and content on the website natural and informative, don't list every area under the sun that you do business in at the bottom of the web page.
6. Make your information on the page keyword rich, Google want to see natural content not engineered information.
7. Ask friends and family to use the website and ask them for their feedback, we are not the centre of the universe and just because we think we are doing it right doesn't mean we are right.
8. Don't put information or a service on your website that you can't undertake.
9. Don't take short cuts, ensure your investment is built right from the off otherwise you will find yourself having to re-invest to make it right. How many are saying to themselves I've been caught out on this one before?
10. Last but not least, make sure your web design works across all devices  - Phones, Tablets & Laptops because your customers and potential customers are viewing your website on all of them.

Please feel free to drop any questions or comments you may have in the comments box and I will do my utmost to reply. 
Stay sane and thank you for reading,
Liam