Did you know that in June 2013, around 7.5 million* potential customers accessed the Internet via their mobile phones?
Smaller devices today dominate the way customers find businesses and make purchases – and believe it or not, the same also applies to the Pest Control Industry.
Last month, we talked about different ways you can Get Your Website On Track in 2014 – This month, we’d like to focus on how you can make sure your website is mobile compatible.
1. Determining Your Mobile Traffic
Before you go about investing in the mobile version of your site, it’s important to consider how much traffic you are both gaining and losing from mobile devices. A simple analytics program (like Google Analytics) will allow you to see how many of your customers are reaching your site via a mobile or tablet.
Tip: In general, if you do choose to go down the mobile site route, avoid designing your site for just one type of device – ensure your site will work across any device, such as Apple, Android, Nokia and so on.
2. Using a Software Tool
If you already have a website, optimising for mobile devices can be quick, easy and inexpensive. There are many software tools available on the web that can convert your desktop site into a mobile-friendly site. Some popular sites include Mobify, Wirenode and bMobilized – you’ll need to do some research, however, to decide which tool will be best for you.
3. Choosing Responsive Designs
When designing your website, choosing a responsive design can be a life-saver. They essentially mean you design one site and then that browser auto-adjusts its layout whenever a user views your site on a smaller device.
To go one step further, you could also consider selecting an ‘Adaptive’ Design, where the server (rather than the browser) decides how to display your website depending on the device being used. However, adaptive designs can be more costly.
4. Is Your Mobile Site Tap-able?
No customer wants to zoom in to be able to tap a link or a button on your mobile site; this is a major deterrent and can send viewers elsewhere. The solution? Make sure your links or buttons are easily visible and tappable for customers’ fingertips! This will make it much easier for them to navigate your mobile site or start a purchasing process.
5. Giving Customers the Right Information
Mobile customers are often searching for something in particular – a specific service or piece of information. For this reason, it’s important that your mobile site presents your visitors with the most critical information.
In the pest industry, customers might want to know what services you offer, how much you charge, areas you service and what pests you can eliminate. Other details like your phone number and email address can be useful as well.
Tip: Keep your mobile site simple, but give customers the option of visiting your full website on their mobiles if they want to find out more information.
6. Make Entering Text Fast & Easy
It’s easy to type on a computer, but entering extensive details on a phone or tablet can be annoying! If your customers find this a hassle, they probably won’t bother with you.
If you ask your customers to fill in a form on a mobile device, make sure it’s easy for them: limit your questions and text-entry fields and instead use checklists, tick boxes or drop down menus that make it simplefor your customer to ‘tap in’ their responses.
7. Avoid Lots of Images
Lots of big, impressive images can look great on a desktop website, but they’re terrible for mobiles – they can slow down your site load times (which means customers won’t wait) and take up valuable screen space.
When optimising or creating your mobile site, avoid using large or lots of images. If you do need to include pictures, make sure they’re (a) essential to your page and (b) small enough so that they won’t take up the whole page or make your mobile site load slowly.
Agserv is dedicated to helping our customers achieve more online. For further information contact your nearest Agserv branch today or browse through our pesticide range here.
