The digital
marketing landscape in Australia is changing rapidly and small business needs
to be proactive about keeping up with the pace. I can hear some of you saying, “But I’m not good with technology,” or “I’m not a computer geek.” However, you don’t need to be proficient in computer lingo, or to keep up with all of
the latest apps, devices and social media sites, but you do need to have some
awareness of what’s available and to take
some interest in new developments, for the sake of your business.
The number of
Australian consumers who are now accessing the internet via a mobile phone,
tablet or i-Pad is increasing rapidly. According to the Official Australian Google Blog, Australia has the
second highest smartphone penetration in the
world—ahead of the US,
UK, and Japan. And as more and more people come out of existing phone contracts,
those who haven’t already done so
will no doubt upgrade their phone to a smart phone, which will in turn see even
greater mobile penetration across the country.
So a very important question that
you need to ask yourself is, “Does my website
have a mobile responsive design?”
If you’re not sure what a ‘mobile responsive design’ is, you’re not alone, as
there are plenty of other business owners who don’t what it means either But on the other hand, why be part of the pack
when you can get an edge on your competitors?
A mobile responsive website design is a website that automatically adjusts to fit the screen
size of the desktop computer, tablet or smartphone browser on which it is being
viewed. On a non-responsive design, what you see on
your smartphone will be exactly the same as what you would see on a desktop computer. However, because there is no difference, when you attempt to view
such a site on a mobile device, you constantly need to zoom in. and then scroll
around frequently so as to be able to read the usually very small text, or
click on any of the buttons. In contrast, a mobile responsive design adjusts
the layout so that the text fits the screen exactly and so becomes very clear
and easy to read, while the buttons are in a format that is large enough for
even the biggest fingers and thumbs to use. As you can imagine, all of
this combines to make for a much more positive user experience.
Not sure if this
applies to your website?
If you are using an
analytics tool such as Google Analytics on your website, you can see for
yourself how many visitors to your site are using a mobile device. Simply go to
Audience > Mobile > Overview and you will see a pie chart showing the
percentage of visitors coming to your site using a mobile device. If this
number is very low, or there is a very high bounce rate, this would suggest
that your site is not especially easy to read or use for viewers using a mobile
device.
Ultimately, if you
are not providing a mobile-friendly experience for your customers they are very
likely to leave your website and go to a competitor whose site is easier to
use. Can that really be good for your business?
Written by +Denise Angus
