The mobile web is growing quite quickly and this growth is expected to continue for many years to come.

An increasing number of internet users are surfing the web using their mobile devices and you need a mobile friendly website to attract those users. Still not convinced? Think about the following facts.

About 93% of Americans own mobile phones

While not all of those mobile phones offer internet access capabilities, a large percentage of them do. Other mobile devices such as tablets, PDAs and notebooks are becoming increasingly popular with web surfers. Tablet computers lead the way, with about 10% of users accessing the mobile web through a tablet on a daily basis.

Approximately 25% of Americans access the internet via mobile devices every day

A recent eMarketer survey revealed that mobile internet usage has increased by nearly 25% since 2011. Yes, a 25% increase just since the beginning of the year. By the time 2015 rolls around, over half of Americans are predicted to be surfing the web with a mobile device. Currently, about 1 in 4 mobile device users go online at least once a day.

Most local business searches are performed using a mobile device

In addition, Google researchers report that about 33% of all mobile searches have a local intent. This makes offering a mobile website essential for restaurants, movie theaters, clubs, car rental companies and all types of retail stores. If you don`t have a mobile friendly website, potential consumers will likely just pass you by.

Less than 25% of the Alexa top 500 online retailers have a mobile friendly site

Although this number may seem surprisingly low, it`s good news for small business owners. Mobile internet users search for, find and use mobile friendly websites. This means that making a mobile friendly web page for your business will give you a great edge over your current non-mobile friendly competitors, even those with greater name recognition.

Budgets for mobile internet marketing campaigns should exceed $6.5 billion in 2012

Advertising trends have always been great indicators of current industry status. If advertisers are willing to spend that much money displaying services and products on the mobile web, you know they must have some pretty good reasons.

One of those reasons is that mobile internet allows advertisers to connect with small, well-defined audiences and deliver targeted marketing messages. Having a mobile friendly website can also help you reach a target audience of consumers who might not browse the internet on their desktop computer.

Mobile websites are different

Accessing the internet on a mobile device is a far cry from surfing the web on your PC. Your regular business website just isn’t going to cut it for viewing on the mobile web. Mobile friendly websites load faster, use smaller images and offer short but valuable content.

Keep in mind that the screen space is very limited on mobile devices. Sites designed for desktop monitors won`t translate well on mobile devices. Make sure that you have eliminated the need for inconvenient side scrolling to access your content and features. Use a slimmer format and larger fonts and get rid of all frames and Flash elements to give your mobile customers a better surfing experience.

People today want instant access to desired information. Test the mobile friendliness of your website on your cell phone or use a mobile phone emulator to view your site. Make sure that your site is fast to load, navigate and read or you risk sending potential customers to competing businesses. In fact, Google researchers report that 61% of users state they probably won`t return to a site if they had trouble pulling it up or using it on their mobile phones.

With the increasing popularity of mobile devices, having a mobile friendly website is no longer a fun novelty. In today`s mobile community, it`s an absolute must. Using short, fast-loading content on a mobile-friendly website will create entirely new marketing programs that allow you to connect with potential and current customers.

Mobile Websites

Tags: best mobile website designers, engine-optimizing, google local seo, google places help, google places login, google places reviews, mobile phone websites, mobile websites