This report highlights the explosive growth of mobile internet searching and the critical need for businesses of all sizes to have a mobile optimised website designed. With the internet continuing to advance and more and more people searching online using their smart phones, if your business hasn’t got a mobile optimised website, then the chances are you are losing customers to more shrewd forward thinking competitors who are already onboard with the important of mobile
websites.

Why are mobile websites so essential and what’s the significance of all of this? Well in 2002 the Americans said that the mobile phone was the least important of the 4 main technologies they use, rating it behind the internet, television and the landline phone.

However just 5 years later in 2007 they said the mobile phone was the number one device they could not live without. The fact is 60% of all mobile phone users even take them to bed with them.

Statistics – Proof you must have an Optimised Mobile website designed for your business.
Fact – “local search volume” is growing exponentially at a whopping 50% each year

In 2009 there were 1 billion local searches
In 2010 there are currently 1.5 billion local searches
2011 is predicted to go to 2.3 billion local searches
2012 is predicted to go to 3.45 billion local searches

The number one access method for local information is the mobile browser with 20.7 million users searching per month. Local searches are growing on mobile devices.

Google’s Director of Emerging Platforms Mike Steib was quoted as saying “Google has seen a 500% growth in local mobile search from 2008 to 2010 and a 67% increase in mobile queries in the last quarter alone.”

If your business is not showing in local searches with a mobile optimised website you are at a distinct disadvantage. 80% of people actually research online before purchasing, even when they ultimately purchase offline.

Technical Aspects

Easy To Read
If you were to view a standard website on a mobile you would need to scroll up and down and left to right, and in most cases the text will be too small to even read. And zooming in and out makes it difficult if not impossible to follow what you are looking at and hardly makes for a good customer experience does it.

Mobile websites however are specifically designed so the information is displayed in an easy to display format so your customers can easily view your site using their Smartphone.

Mobile Redirect
When you add a mobile website to your marketing arsenal, a simple piece of coding behind the scenes will direct the visitor to the website appropriate to the platform that they are visiting from. This coding will automatically pick up whether the user is on a mobile device or on a traditional connection and direct them accordingly to either your mobile optimised website or your full website. This technology provides for a seamless professional experience for your  customers.

Nowadays you can have a domain extension a.mobi just for your mobile website. So your main website may be justanexample.com and your mobile optimised website maybe justanexamlpe.mobi

Usability and Future Proofing Your Mobilised Website
It is essential to ensure that your mobile website works with all types of smart phones and internet browsers. There is a danger if you are trying to do the website yourself that this becomes impossible to manage. When you do it yourself you have to ask yourself the question; what will happen next month when a whole bunch more phones come out? By using a professional company they can make sure your content is optimized in a way to cover you now and in the future. Most will offer a monthly service to cover all updates.

Useful Features
Click to Dial is just one quick example of a useful feature of a mobile website. As the name suggests, your customer can ring you straight from their mobile phone. Only recently I was in the car with a business partner and we decided we wanted a coffee. We put the name of my favourite brand of coffee shops into our mobile device and the local searches immediately presented back the details including map of the nearest coffee shop.

Conclusions
Local searches are growing at a phenomenal rate and your business must have the technology to benefit. Mobile website design is now essential as you can’t rely on a standard website as your customers will not stay on your website if it is not  easy to read. The whole purpose of a mobile optimised website is to provide your customers with an excellent user  experience.

A mobile website is a must have to ensure your customers can find you instead of your competition. So get your business mobilised. Discover why your business needs a Mobile Website and how you can beat your competition to the  millions of Mobile Users Searching for Your Business on Mobile Devices. Get your copy of the FREE report “The 7 Myths About Mobile and The Truth That Can Jet-Fuel Your Business”: www.MobileWebsiteDesign.me

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Graeme_M_Hoppitt

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Mobile is HOT… and it’s getting hotter … day-by-day!!
Go Mobile Website Here!
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