2012/07/24

You need a mobile friendly website - Small Biz Survival

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:34 AM PDT

In a small town, you might think everyone already knows about your business or your well-known tourism attraction. You might think you don't need a website at all, or that it doesn't matter if you don't have a mobile-friendly website.

You'd be wrong. You have new residents, people who have never needed your service before, visitors, and tourists. They don't know about you, and they are highly likely to search for you using their phone.

During 2011, mobile access to the Internet doubled.
61% of smartphone users search for local information on the go.

[Localeze study, December 2011, reported by Marketing Profs.]

And I'm willing to bet that your website isn't ready for this, because analysis conducted by BIA/Kelsey said that:

"93.3% of SMB websites are not mobile-compatible and will not render successfully on mobile devices or smartphones."

What's the easiest way to get a mobile friendly website for a small town business? Build your site using a tool that is mobile-friendly.

Two Do-It-Yourself Choices
My liquor store site is built on Blogger, and it is automatically mobile friendly. Posterous Spaces is also easy to use and automatically is mobile friendly. You can build your own site without additional technical help on these services.

One With-Help Choice
If you are ready to pay for website support, you can use WordPress. It's very powerful, and can be customized to be mobile friendly. However, for the majority of small business owners in small towns, it's too much to take on alone.

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