Is your website optimized for mobile phones? This is very important because most people use mobile devices to search online. A few people like myself always use my laptop because I think it’s faster, but the majority prefer to use their phones to look up information online and this needs to be taken into consideration. Your website looks completely different on your phone compared to your laptop computer; so you need to make sure your website looks proper on phones and tablets alike. When I say that your website has to be optimized for mobile phones, I don’t mean just for SEO. Your mobile website needs to be easy to navigate from a phone, and your most important content should be on the first page.
When someone views your website from their phone, all your call-to-actions should be in front of the client without them navigating to another page. It can be confusing to navigate through the menus on a mobile website (even if optimized correctly) so you need to make sure your most important content is right in front of the clients face as soon as they hit your website. Almost everyone has smart phones, but they don’t really know how to use them. Let’s be honest, most people just check their Facebook accounts, dating apps, and Twitter accounts. They’ll take the time to learn how to navigate those websites on their phone, but they won’t invest more than 3 seconds trying to figure out how to navigate your business website because they mostly don’t care.
If you want a potential client to call your 800 number, then your 800 number should be the first thing they see when they arrive at your website. The potential client should see your 800 number without even scrolling down your website; which means it should be above the fold (top half of your website). If you want clients to fill out your “quote form” to request more information, then your quote form should be right on the homepage above the fold. Some people are too lazy to even scroll down your website; that’s just how people are.
A lot of people are very impatient and they want everything NOW without doing any extra work. You have to make your website dummy proof for the lazy people or you’ll lose those clients to the competition. Besides the content placement on your website, you need to make sure that your website fits properly on tablets as well. A lot of people like to search the web from their iPads and other tablets, and your website will look different on tablets compared to mobile phones. Websites that fit properly on laptops, mobile phones, and tablets are called “responsive.” A responsive theme is a theme that will be responsive to any type of web browser that the client uses. If you purchase a website template, make sure it’s responsive before you purchase it.
Make sure your 800 number or contact information is big enough for the client to see. When clients click on your phone number, you can even set a feature that will automatically dial your number. If you want a potential client to request a quote, fill out a form, or whatever action you want them to perform; they should be able to perform this action without navigating to another page. If you have a custom form on your homepage, you need to make sure this form looks and functions correctly on mobile devices or you’re going to lose a lot of customers. Some people will visit your website once on their phone and never look at your website on a desktop computer. Your website might already be responsive for mobile phones, but you need to make sure that your website has all the call-to-actions right in front of the client.
I’ll give two examples of websites that are perfect for people that surf the internet on their phone. One of my older clients, Target Up Insurance, has their quote form optimized for mobile devices. Target Up Insurance also has their phone number at the top of the website. If you were to click on their phone number, it automatically calls Target Up Insurance.
If you start to fill out the form on their homepage, it’s responsive and it fits the screen which makes it very easy for a person to perform the most important actions wanted by Target Up Insurance. If a person really wanted to browse through the entire website, they can use their desktop computer; but most likely they’re just looking for direct information and that’s what you want to give potential clients via mobile phones.
If you go to my website, you can see that it’s also responsive and the phone number is right there easy for people to see. Potential clients can also click the button on the homepage which stands out with our phone number. So you need to look at your website on mobile devices to make sure that all your call-to-actions are readily available. SEO isn’t ONLY about getting on the first page of Google. What’s the point of being #1 on Google if people don’t know what to do when they land on your website?
At the end of the day it’s all about sales and increasing your client base. The way that you increase your client base is reaching the masses, and unfortunately the masses have their cell phones glued to their hands. You need to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile phones even more so than desktops. You will also receive a SEO boost in search engines if your website is optimized for mobile phones and tablets. For more information, or if you need help with a custom mobile website, you can give us a call or send us an email and I can give you a quote based on your situation. I can also tell you how to improve your website if it’s already responsive to increase conversions. For information, contact us.
