Have you’ll heard of the phrase ‘you can like me, you can hate me, but you cannot ignore me.’
Well this definitely holds true for mobile optimization. Whether you think of it as a fruitful upgrade or an unnecessary spend, mobile optimization has become a must.
In a research conducted by Silverpop, worldwide tablet shipments are estimated to grow 70% in 2014 and increase by over 300% over  a five year time from 2012 to 2017. Mobile phones will show nice 80% growth over the same five years and smartphones will capture a greater share of the market. PC shipments are forecasted to decline by 20% over five years.
With the advent of 3G and the upcoming 4G and LTE technology, along with the increase in number of mobile device accessing information through a mobile device has become extremely easy. Hence it has become more than important now to optimize your websites for mobile users. It may not be the only way, but it definitely is the smartest way forward.
Let’s take two scenarios into consideration-
Visits to an e-commerce Webstore
When purchasing a products one may not purchase it in the first click but he would definitely research about the product before he makes the final purchase.
According to a Nielsen research 1 in 2 mobile users research a product on their mobiles before buying it. According to the study the research is mostly done while, returning home from work or while, on the move.
In a study conducted by comScore it was found that the average attention span of a online reader is 7 sec. If your website is not optimized and the user finds it difficult to navigate and find the information that he needs, the purchase will not take place. Hence your mobile website needs to be optimized to provide the best user experience.
Visit to an informative website – A blog or a news website
In this case it becomes all the more important to have a mobile optimized website because the user is not bound to stay on your website. The reason why a user would opt to stay on the website would be because of the freshness of the content and the whole experience that the website provides. Hence with increase in usage of mobile devices if one wants to provide an unparalleled experience to its users it becomes necessary for the website to have its mobile optimized version.
Okay, so now that we know why we need to do this, lets see how:
The first one would be Responsive theming. It works on the fluid concept where the page element sizing are based on relative units like percentages and not on absolute units like pixels. Hence, based on the size of the screen, it automatically adjusts all the elements.
Another method would be to make two versions of the website. With this approach, you create one version of your website for large screens and another that’s optimized for smaller devices. Depending on the screen size, the specific version of the website will be visible to the user.
Remember, mobile devices may not be the direct medium for a purchase but they definitely account for attributions to a purchase.
So now I will leave it to you, to figure out whether mobile optimization will be beneficial for your business or not. And if yes which method is best suited for you.
Please do post any questions that you may have. I will try and address them as soon as possible.
