According to a recent report, 91% of small business’s websites aren’t optimized for mobile. Let that sink in. Only 9% of businesses are actually optimizing for mobile, and that’s good news for them. The report concluded that while many small businesses do have an online presence, they simply aren’t prepared to handle the surge in mobile consumers.

What it means

When you stop and consider that mobile devices now account for approximately 50% of all web traffic, you begin to see the importance of the 90-10 ratio. The 90% who aren’t optimized for mobile are likely giving up nearly half of their potential customers to the 10% that are.

If you own a smartphone yourself, chances are you’ve had the experience of trying to navigate a website designed for desktops and laptops. The text is too small and the formatting is often scrambled up. You have to constantly pinch and zoom to try to read text and when you try to click on a link your too-large finger clicks on another one instead. You know from experience that you can only handle so much of this before you go looking for the information you need elsewhere. The chances of finding what you need or completing a purchase in this way is very unlikely.

Now compare this to a mobile optimized website experience. The text is larger and formatted for smaller screened devices. Users don’t need to pinch and zoom and scroll around to find what they need. Links are larger and navigation is simpler. It takes only a short time to find needed information or to complete a purchase.

Which website experience would you like to have on your smartphone?

Tips to catch up

If you’re one of the 10% that is already optimized for mobile. Pat yourself on the back and rest assured that it’s already helping you take business from those who aren’t.

More likely you’re one of the 90% that needs to catch up, and fast. Here are a couple tips that may help:

• Consider responsive design. The nice thing about responsive design is that you don’t have to create two separate versions of your website. Responsive design allows your website to format itself according to the device being used to view it. In other words it’s automatically optimized for every user no matter their mobile device
• Less is more. When it comes to creating a mobile website, less is definitely more. Don’t try to take all the content from your traditional website, and cram it into your mobile site. Think about what information your mobile customers will be looking for and gear your mobile site towards that. The more simple and intuitive your site is to navigate, the better

Source: business2community.com/small-business/91-small-business-websites-mobile-optimized-0831683#!GMFoo