Google Stresses the Need for Optimized Mobile Websites
Google Exec: Optimized Mobile Websites are a Necessity. And a Success.
Google executive, Shiv Kumar, spoke about mobile at a May 3 Google conference. I have previously searched for the type of updated information he gives in his presentation, but had fallen short. I have included a summary on his presentation, but first things first. How important are mobile searches?
Google Places and Mobile Search
Mobile search queries are for restaurants, products, services, and financial services. Google Places and mobile search tools help users find what they are looking for quickly, being especially useful in regard to location. Finding a local vietnamese restaurant, or a local locksmith is easy with Google's geolocation tools. And more people are counting on the new technology.
The mobile search process is all about convenience and immediate reward. A large portion are mobile search queries are for restaurants, hotels, and points of interest found locally and while on vacation. 15.4% of search queries on mobile are for finance and insurance services. Point? Embrace mobility to take advantage of the hesitant market. Never underestimate the power of mobile, how it is being used, and how it is in your children's future (as well as yours).
Think Back to the Nineties
In his presentation, Kumar makes an interesting analogy, which is important to hold onto as we deem mobile a commodity.
As business success is to a web presence, now business success is tied to a mobile presence.
He tells us to think back to the nineties. Businesses were hesitant to put themselves online, although web usage was growing. They did not think customers would convert online. Obviously, the timid had a lot of catching up to do, and paid a painful price for their reservations. Fighting hesitancy and dated forms of thought is in the SMB's best interest. Mobile is where the money is now, and will be in the future.
Hesitant Businesses fighting Expectation:
- 79% of large advertisers do not have a mobile site
- 11% of users have screamed at their phone for poor loading
- 58% of users expect mobile sites load quickly or faster than desktop sites
The Importance of Being User-friendly
User Grudges:
- 62% of users are not willing to wait 30 seconds to complete a simple transaction
- 61% said they are unwilling to return to a mobile site they have had trouble accessing from their phone
- 40% even said they would visit a competitor’s site instead
- 19% of people have a negative perception of the company if they are dissatisfied with performance
Improving Conversions with an Optimized Mobile Website
Mobile Optimization = High ROI due to:
- Click-to-call
- Prioritized content
- Quick load time
If users do not find what they are looking for, they move on, especially with the expected convenience of mobile. Building a mobile website helps a business get found on phones AND gain loyal customers through action-oriented content placement.
Best Practice Tips:
- Simple layouts are best.
- Design for thumbs, not mice.
- Prioritize Content.
- Take advantage of uniquely mobile features, like Geolocation.
- Make it easy to convert. i.e. click-to-call buttons
Take Your Business Mobile
Whether you are a hoster, ISP, telco, directory, agency, or a SMB, there are opportunities to mobilize your business with UNITY.
Find out how:
Web Services Provider (hoster, ISP, directory, telco)
Reference: Mobile Marketer
Hosters Will Win with Mobile
Give Yourself an Edge with Mobile Web Services
Web services providers are in a privileged position to tap an untouched market, consisting of billions. The smart phone consumer market grows by the hundreds of millions- yearly. How can a hoster, telco, or ISP attract the attention of the masses? The answer is in your hands. Or next to your ear. ...mobile.
Mobile is not an Option
In order to offer mobile web services, and have an edge over your competitors, you need to start offering mobile now. Mobile web is quickly becoming a commodity, and will become a new standard for hosting providers. People are starting to use phones over desktops, due to improved technologies, and added convenience. Web services providers can easily expand their core offering, by adding mobile as an application on a control panel. Your customers can build their website and mobile website/app, all in one place. Cater to the SMBs mobility needs, set yourself apart, attract more customers, and stay in the game. With mobile web services.
What are mobile web services?
- Mobile website builder
- Mobile application publisher
- SMS messaging tools
- QR code tools
- Marketing campaign tools
- Comprehensive reporting and analytics (including Google analytics)
The Need for Mobile Web Services
A web presence is almost synonymous with the prospect of success in business. Setting up for success becomes defined by the back end: having a navigable, usable, and appealing website. But, where is the website proponent for success limited? What are the limits to web usage? How can businesses grow beyond merely having a website?
The Benefits of Mobility
By having a mobile presence, the successful SMB markets to the greatest number of customers.
The three components of having a complete mobile presence include:
Optimized Mobile Website
The difference between an optimized mobile website and an unoptimized website can differentiate which service or product customers will choose. If SMBs have a convenient, easy to use mobile website, customer interaction is more consummate, and leads/sales are easier to come by.
In the same way websites are necessary for successful businesses, mobile websites are necessary.
Mobile App Publication
Mobile applications are bookmarks or shortcuts for your loyal (or, soon-to-be loyal) customers. Apps can be accessed without internet, and used to offer:
- Promotions
- Directions
- Contact Information
- Forms (Make appointment/reservation)
- List of services/products
- Virtual tours
- Video/music content
Mobile Marketing Services
Advertise mobile sites and applications, with:
QR Codes
Used on advertising material to easily engage customers
SMS
Used to offer promotions for loyal customers who respond to your text.
Web Services Fill the Gap by Offering ALL Mobile Services in One Place
- Offering mobile services means adding a mobile application to the control panel. You would add this application the same way you add WordPress.
- Mobility has a succinctly alluring appeal. When you offer mobile, you are not only expanding your customer offering, but differentiating yourself from your competitors. Mobility is a need NOW, and will be a standard offering for web services providers.
- Mobile phone usage is growing daily. At this point in time, a person (your client) needs to use a separate mobile service and have a high budget, to have an optimized mobile website, application, and mobile campaign tool.
- An untapped market means increased ROI for you. As a mobile presence becomes a necessity for business, and the demand for a user-friendly mobile interface increases, hosters are in the most advantageous position to expand their offering early, and take control of a huge market.
Include Mobile in your Services Portfolio
The hoster who takes steps toward mobile the fastest is in the most advantaged position, standing out amongst other solely web-oriented hosters.
Offering Mobile Services:
- Entices customers and boosts conversion
- Reaches an untouched market
- Highly valued service for SMBs
- Increases ARPU
Value of the UNITY Mobile Platform
UNITY Mobile offers the most complete mobile services package on the market:
- Includes mobile websites, apps, and marketing tools
- Massive feature list
- Advanced customizations
- Easy integration process
- 100% white-label approach offered
- Flexible packages and pricing
- Single-sign-on
- Leverage Personal domains
- Automatically deployed through Parallels Plesk 10
UNITY Mobile is the most flexible and complete package for the web services provider. No one else offers a mobile website builder, application publishing tool, and marketing tools all in one place. With easy integration, you can deploy UNITY Mobile quickly, and take your customers mobile. Please visit our Web Services Providers page, and Contact Us by email or phone for more information.
Overcoming Phone Frustrations with Mobile Web Services
The Value of Extending Mobility to the SMB
Mobile phone usage has soared as users come to depend more on the convenient device in their pockets, over a heftier computer counterpart. A 424-page Morgan Stanley Report stated that half a billion people accessed mobile internet in 2009, with usage expected to double within 5 years. By 2015, mobile web usage will overtake PC usage. Many mobile web users already rely on mobile web only, not having a desktop, tablet, or PC, including 25% of all US mobile web consumers.
Providing mobile web services to the SMB is an opportunity still in its prime. Web services providers can offer customers a flexible, easily integrated mobile web services package, which make building an optimized mobile website a breeze, and having a mobile app just as easy.
What is an Optimized Mobile Website?
When you search the web on your mobile phone, you may notice how some mobile websites are:
- too small to read
- too difficult to navigate
- not user-friendly
Who suffers from this breach in functionality?
The consumer does not have the desired convenience and ease of use anticipated with the ownership of a smart phone.
The business suffers for not making their core offering available to the vast and daily growing mobile phone population.
With today’s phones, mobile navigation and search should be easy. Users are searching for an enjoyable, interactive mobile experience. If the business does not present itself well or clearly to mobile phone viewers, the potential customer will opt for a competitor’s services.
Why SMBs are Not Already Mobile
Businesses express a need for mobile services, but have to meet too much criteria to have a full range of mobile services. Mobile businesses have a competitive advantage, but taking a business mobile can be too complicated, expensive and daunting.
If I own a spa and want to offer my customers the ability to view my services, make appointments, find my location from their phone, receive loyal customer promotions, and use marketing tools like SMS and QR Codes, I have to find different companies to:
- Build a mobile website
- Build an application
- Manage my advertising
Although mobile services would improve my business, I would not invest the money, due to the required budget and effort. Does that mean I am not intrigued by offering an optimized mobile website or application? Certainly not.
Web Services Providers Can Make Going Mobile Painless
UNITY Mobile offers advanced and customizable mobile services in one, easy to use platform. Hosters, ISPs, telcos, and directories can offer mobile like an application, right from a control panel. The SMB need for mobile services exists, but UNITY Mobile’s unique product makes offering mobile scalable for the web services provider and convenient for the customer.
If I am an SMB looking for a hosting company, I will compare offers. If I see one offers a mobile package, I will choose that company to host my sites. Why?:
- Mobile services are an intriguing and new product.
- Smart phone usage is drastically growing.
- Any business could grow from having a user-friendly, well-designed mobile website, in the same way existing websites are used to channel customers and make a statement.
Bringing Web and Mobile Together
Web and mobile can go hand-in-hand. Hosters can take full advantage of what happens on the desktop computer and the phone. It just takes the right product and a quick implementation, to expand a portfolio and the number of registered domains.
If you would like more information about how you can add UNITY Mobile to your portfolio, please contact us, and we will respond very shortly. Please also visit our Web Services Providers page for a more detailed look at how you can offer your customers mobility.
