The development of any new site is a hassle. When it comes to all of the technical considerations of a site designed for mobile browsing, the difficulty factor grows. Most businesses assume that they don’t need a mobile-specific site, and for many this is true. Without analysing the question, however, you really can’t be sure.

When assessing the need for a mobile site, it’s important to look at three areas: your site data, your business, and your customers.

The analytical stage:

• Are any of your traffic stats from mobile browsers? Your traffic data are the best basic indicator. If you have a significant percentage of traffic coming from mobile browsers, thinking about a mobile-specific site might be a good idea
• Where is your traffic coming from? This can also help you with your decision when taken into account with other factors

The logical stage

• Is the percentage of users from mobile browsers enough to make the project worthwhile? Once you have your data, you need to assess. If a tiny percentage is from mobiles, it might not be worthwhile
• Are your future plans going to appeal to mobile browsing? This can make a big difference to your plans. You may not have significant mobile traffic yet. What about in a year? Two years? Five? The development of a mobile site takes time, and should be worked into your long-term schedule

Mobile browsing may be closer than you think. If you’re operating a business with international appeal, the chances are that many of your customers frequently use their mobiles to browse your site. Mobile browsing is particularly big in many of the countries on the Asian continent, due to affordable mobile prices. Google’s move into mobile browsing in Africa is also a gentle hint that mobile is the way of the future in developing as well as developed countries.

The customer stage

• Is your target market headed toward mobile? This is a very important consideration. Your users might not be coming from mobiles yet, but market analysis might show that they are likely to soon. Mobile search is increasing rapidly with advanced technologies
• Are your competitors already mobile? This is perhaps one of the more important considerations. Some competitor moves don’t warrant copying. However, if your competitors are providing a valuable service and you’re not, they can easily gain an advantage

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can better balance up whether the hassle of developing a mobile-friendly site is going to be worthwhile for your business. Mobile sites are an investment. They need to run parallel with your main site, and it is important to differentiate between the two with Google to ensure you don’t run into any duplicate content problems. They also require their own particular brand of search engine optimisation, and you can talk to us about that at SEO Consult. If your target users are mobile browsing, the need for your site to go mobile is only a matter of time.

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