The Office for National Statistics released some really interesting information in August 2014 about how people access the internet from their homes. To pick up on just two of the key points:
- In 2014, 38 million adults (76%) in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day, 21 million more than in 2006, when directly comparable records began
- Access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2014, from 24% to 58%
Just think about that second point for a moment. Over half the people accessing the internet at home do so using a mobile phone. If your website is a little long in the tooth, or hasn’t been designed to display properly on a mobile device you could be missing out on engaging half the available visitors.
How do I make my website mobile phone/tablet friendly? There are three areas that you can look at:
- Make your website “responsive”. This means that you can use the same site for both mobile and desktop browsers (visitors). The coding behind the website will alter how the site looks on a mobile phone so that it is easy to read and people don’t need to “zoom in” or drag the page about to read it all.
- Ensure that your navigation (your menu system) is touchscreen friendly. Have you checked how well any scrolling or drop down menus you have on your site work on a mobile phone? If you’ve only checked it on one operating system, then you may still get a shock when you access it using another device. Thoroughness is key here.
- Get your graphics ready to look great on retina display/HD (high definition) mobile screens. This means you can take advantage to display your business brilliantly and make it stand out from the other – less mobile friendly – websites.
If you’d like us to have a look at your current website and let you know how we can help you make it more mobile friendly then just get in touch.