Optimize Your Small Business for Mobile

The amount of people that use mobile devices to access the internet has doubled in recent years, according to research from Pew Internet.  In fact, according to the same research, more than half of U.S. cell phone owners use their phones to access the internet. As more people use mobile phones to access the internet, it is important for small businesses to still be able to connect with potential customers. If you have a small business, there are a couple of easy things that you can do in order to reach the mobile consumer.

Consider how your website looks when viewed from a mobile device. You can test how it looks here.  Is it easy to navigate?  Are the buttons and text large enough to be seen on a phone? How long does it take for your website to load on a mobile device, if it can load at all?

Make sure that your contact information is prominently displayed and easily seen on a mobile device.

It is important to keep in mind that things that work for your website when viewed on a large browser may not work on a mobile device.  Often high-resolution graphics take longer to load on a mobile device.

Remember iPhones are completely unable to display Flash. If someone is trying to access your website with a mobile device and is unable to view it or it takes too long to load, they may give up and go elsewhere.

Another thing you can do to improve your mobile web traffic is to make sure that your customers can find your information.  Most people use online directories to find out information about a business. It is important to update your online listings and to make sure that they are completely accurate.   You can do this yourself, or you can use a service to update your information and provide it to multiple directories.

[Images via howtogomo]