How to Optimize Your Mobile Website and Boost Your Page Views
The number of mobile browsers today is quickly increasing that by 2015 it is estimated that there will be more people surfing the web through their mobile devices compared to desktop PC users. In fact, some analysts even made aggressive estimates that 2015 is way too far; with the current growth rate, the mobile browsers will soon dominate the cyberspace as early as the last quarter of 2013. This makes it all the more important to start initiating some changes to optimize to transform your blog to a mobile website and boost your page views.
These projections are reinforced by hard facts; just check the statistics of mobile internet users in today’s time:
- 75% of online shoppers prefer to shop in mobile-friendly web stores.
- Americans spend about 2.7 hours per day just to socialize using their mobile devices (this is about 1/3 of the amount of their average sleeping time and more than twice the number of hours they spend taking their snacks and meals).
- 59% of the mobile users ended up in an online shop, and 61% of them made a call to the business hotline.
- 50% mobile traffic were converted into customers.
- Mobile net users have dramatically increased four times since 2010.
- About 86% are surfing the net using their mobile devices while watching their favorite television programs.
- The most common reason why people browse the net through their mobile gadgets is to socialize. This comprises 91% of mobile internet access.
- 60% of the mobile net users expect a web page to quickly load in less than 3 seconds.
- 40% mobile browsers will immediately leave if they are not happy with the blog, and 57% users will also not recommend your blog if they were not happy during their visit.
- 1 in every 3 persons using mobile devices regularly plays mobile games
- 21% of the mobile market is held on by users of tablet devices.
More Mobile Stats
Most Common Mobile Phone Activities (Based on Mobile Traffic Behavior Infographics)
- Gaming – 61%
- Track Weather – 55%
- Use the Search Engine and Maps – 50%
- Social Networking 49%
- Music – 42%
- News – 36%
- Entertainment – 33%
- Look for Places to Dine – 25%
- Watch Videos – 21%
The above statistics are based on the prevailing activities of mobile users. These are good hints for online entrepreneurs to properly position their web stores to cater to the needs of mobile users and online shoppers. The data shows that many people are not only shopping online using the traditional desktop computers but many of them are now using their mobile phones to buy stuffs through the internet.
So if you are thinking of capturing the mobile shoppers then you must also be aware of what many of them are normally doing when they log on to the internet using an Android phone or a wireless electronic gadget like iPad.
How to Tap on the Mobile Users
While there is not much difference in strategies on how to get traffic from desktop PC users from the mobile internet browsers, there are a few things that you need to be mindful of when positioning your blog for the mobile market.
You need to cater to their unique needs, and you can meet their requirements by keeping in mind some of the stats that will show you what most mobile users expect to do when they surf the net.
- 76% want to check a location
- 61% like to call a business
- 54% wants to send an email
- 53% will download some apps
- 48% will socialize in a company’s social page
- 41% plans to watch a video clip
By taking into consideration the above data, you can more efficiently position your web store to the right audience, and appropriately design your mobile pages to optimize the conversion rate.
Tips on Designing Your Mobile Website
Getting referrals to your mobile blog is one thing, converting your captured visitors is another thing. It is useless to have high page views coming from the mobile users if your web page sucks in converting prospects into customers.
In order to optimize the conversion rate and transform your mobile visitors into clients, you need to do a couple of tweaks on your pages. Here are a couple of tips on designing your page to make it fit for the mobile market.
- Use big buttons that are easy to click on using a big finger
- Make it clean and easy to navigate
- Make it load fast; ideally in less than 3 seconds only
- Add a ‘click to call’ button
- Make it easy to navigate in mobile view
- Add an easy-to-save button for people to finish reading the information later on
- Provide an option to change the interface into a non-mobile view
- Make the search bar easy to find
- Add a ‘fit-to-screen’ viewing option
- If you are selling a product, properly highlight your ‘buy’ button
When designing your mobile blog, one of the statistics above that you must keep in mind is that 40% of your visitors will instantly leave if they find the web pages not easy to navigate, and the content do not provide enough information.
Therefore, effective design and highly efficient navigation have more important roles. This is due to the fact the viewing space is very limited, and you need to squeeze in the most important features of your web store within a limited space.
Unlike the standard blogs where you have more flexibility in presenting your offers because of the ample space, mobile views do not enjoy the same flexibility on space. In this case, some features may have to be presented in buttons without previews just to make it easier for the viewers to navigate to other posts.
Converting to Mobile View
If you want to target the mobile users, you need to convert your web page into mobile view. Some platforms like WordPress have plugins that allow you to easily do the desired conversion with just a few simple clicks. There are premium paid plug-ins, and there are free plug-ins as well. Some of the top-rated free WordPress plug-ins for mobile are as follows:
- Mobiloud Mobile App Plugin
- Mobile Detector
- WP Mobile Pack
There are also premium plugins like IamMobiled. If you are not using WordPress but other platforms, you can use third party services for the conversion such as Howtogomo.com. There are even free WP plugins that allow you to create a mobile app for your blog like the ‘UppSite – Go Mobile’ plugin.
Nonetheless, if you fail to make your web page available in mobile view then you are missing a lot. You will lose some amount of visitors as well. The increasing number of mobile users today makes it imperative for webmasters to start preparing their respective blogs for the looming invasion of mobile net users, which is projected to overwhelm the PC world sooner than expected.
If don’t do the necessary changes to make your mobile website easy to view and navigate using a mobile device, then you will not only be left out by your competitors but your page views will gradually decline over time as more people will browse the internet using their Android Phones and Apple personal electronic gadgets.