Go Mobile in Three Steps

Show all Close
January 3, 2013

A common joke in our industry is that ever since 2007 – every year was the “year of the mobile”.. Well, no smoke without fire, and mobile is indeed red hot in 2013. As mobile web browsing continues to grow, it is now an imperative to make your website mobile-friendly. If you haven’t yet adapted your website to mobile devices yet, here are three steps to guide you through the process.

1. Measure the cost of not having a mobile-friendly website

You can use Google Analytics to check the mobile share of traffic on your site. Go to Audience tab -> Mobile -> overview. We at Seperia typically see this figure already in the double digit zone for most of our GA accounts! What percentage of your website visitors comes from mobile? Looking forward, you can safely assume that the growth graph that you’re seeing in the past 6-12 months will stretch out well into the future. How does mobile traffic compare to the overall in terms of goal conversion rates, and engagement metrics (bounce rate, pages per visit)? Think of the mobile experience that you’re providing now and what you would have expected to get as a user. Usually, you need to build the experience in a whole new way in order to maximize the traffic. The goal is to convert no less than in desktop, and that’s where you should aim.

2. Adapt or re-build your mobile experience

Your mobile website should be smaller and leaner compared with the full website. It should be cut down to show the most relevant content or features clearly, and enable visitors to complete the most common tasks efficiently. If incoming calls are relevant, you have a whole new conversion touchpoint – click to call functionality. Ask yourself what are the core tasks that mobile users might be seeking? Then look at the “Top Pages” report for your “Mobile Traffic” segment, to see what mobile visitors are looking for on your website.

3. Choose the right tool

There are many different tools for “mobilizing” your website. Tools like Google’s GoMo are almost completely automatic. Mobify allows for a higher level of customization through either a simple visual selection tool or a full coding environment. For full control, jQuery Mobile is a popular framework for creating an optimized web experience on touch devices. There are also specific mobile plugins for sites running under WordPressJoomla and Drupal. Choose the technology that’s right for you depending on your design needs and development resources.   Combine analytics with well thought of web architecture and design to unleash the potential of your business in an increasingly mobile era.