Mobile Websites - a must
 

I keep hearing more and more of "SoLoMo". It seems that all businesses are going mobile!

What does that mean? Well, of course it means that my business should go mobile too! I don't want to lose potential customers to my competitors just because I don't have a mobile site.

If you don't already have a mobile website, I recommend using a website builder like wix.com or exai.com, where you can build a website and automatically make it mobile as well.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

At least wix.com you can't use here in Germany. In German wix means to jerk :eek:

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

Hey Timmor
Mobile websites and applications are the necessity of the present time business, over 50% of people in US uses smart phone devices and makes searches for services from them. Having a mobile websites and promoting it is what you need for being present in the competition. I haven't heard of any of the solomy, wix or exai yet, I will suggest you to seek for some good mobile website development company and have it build for you.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

Traffic from mobile sites will start to dominate soon, more and more people are getting online via their mobile phones so yea, get yourself a mobile site.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

LOOOOOOOL!:eek:

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I also had a big laugh at dtm's post.
These threads always make me think though - really? Mobile sites can be a BIG helper for a business - or perhaps none at all. Somewhere the line of practicality has to be drawn.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I think that if the mobile site is easy to use, built with the user in mind, then it can only help the business because it makes it available to a wider customer base. Smartphones are becoming increasingly dominant in our society and more and more people are using their mobile devices, like their iphone or ipad, to find information for everything. I have to disagree with you - it is very practical to be able to find information while on the go, and if a business doesn't have a mobile website, then most likely I will find its competitor that does have one.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I think it's a must for a business to at least have a mobile friendly landing page these days. I mean you're really giving your competition a bit of an edge over you if you don't.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I don't like browsing non mobile sites on my phone and other customers don't either. With mobile searches over 50% for some businesses like restaurants, they do themselves serious harm by not mobilizing their websites.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I think the statistic is even more:

"95% of users search for local information with 9 out of 10 taking action."

Google video:

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

In many underdeveloped countries, the internet penetration is solely relied on mobile internet, so its unwise not to mobilise their websites. Also, most of the mobile websites have a more free domain, so this is a market still up for grabs.

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It's a pretty staggering statistic. I just think of all the local businesses that don't have a mobile site and they're still spending hundreds to thousands of dollars a year for useless Yellow Page ads that nobody even search for anymore.

There are the services like Mobify.com, dudamobile.com etc., but I also would also suggest that someone that knows what they are doing develop the site. I used a service bestfreemobilesite.com and they did it all for me for free.

There's really a lot of ways to do this, but it's important that their are specific elements on the mobile site that's different than the desktop version for the best viewing and navigation.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

So true. A lot of business owners are actually so far behind technology it's not funny. There will always be room for a Yellow Pages because the older population still prefer to use those types of things but they aren't nearly as effective as online marketing nowadays.

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I just found this information in a Linkedin group about Yelp ads. It's pretty interesting to see some of the stats. Not so impressive:

1. Restaurant operator pays $500/mo for 5,000 impressions/mo.
2. 1% click-through-rate on the ads, so 50 people on your Yelp profile.
3. 20% clicked to the restaurant's website, so 10 people on your website.
4. 10% clicked to make an online reservation, so 1 proven, trackable online reservation.

I'm sure Yellowpages is even worse!

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I never heard of yelp, however, after you mentioned it I looked it up. At first it seemed quite discouraging for me. I have been working on something similar for more than two months now, planning to go live in September.

Seeing yelp now it seems there is already a really big competitor, and I am not sure if it makes much sense for me to enter that market starting small or if they are present all over the place.

What to do now? Throw it all into the bin? I am not sure since ...

They seem to be not very well known, at least my research before I started did not find them.

They are probably very expensive, when you say it costs $500 per month. I would offer an entry for a fraction of that cost.

Also if they were the big guy for local mobile directories there would probably not be so many threads on the WF about setting up mobile directories.

Reading your post in the middle of work has definitely brought me to a standstill instantly. Going to the lake for a swim to clear my head.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

Mobile websites are essential for many businesses. I have spoken to many business owners who never knew how much leads and sales they were losing without having a mobile website. They are extremely surprised and delighted when they find out after getting a mobile site that their traffic and leads have gone up significantly

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Sorry to bum you out. Just think of what your site can offer that Yelp doesn't. There are a ton of Yelp type sites (citysearch, yahoo local, urbanspooon). Maybe integrate mobile website development into your advertising offer? Charge X amount of dollars for advertising and each business gets a free mobile landing page for their business. I think businesses would love this and you could develop (or have them developed) a bunch of landing page templates that you simply reuse, swapping out the logo and colors. Don't give up! Just rethink your strategy.

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Let me ask your opinion on this, is the Lime mobile web builder the best way to go or a third party software?

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Spending money of Yellow Pages is a complete waste in my opinion - pretty soon nothing will be printed on paper anymore.

I understand your suggestion of hiring a professional to develop mobile websites, but I think most people are looking for a less expensive and less time-consuming solution. I agree that Mobify is a great tool - what's especially great is that it automatically syncs changes in your original site to your mobile site. I personally prefer to, from the start, build my websites in a website builder, like Exai, that will convert them to mobile sites and also automatically sync changes. I like to have everything available to me in one spot. Less messy, less hassle, less time, less money.

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

I am in no way affiliated with these guys nor have I used their services, but I do believe according to my own Google Analytics analysis of mobile users to my websites, that the statistics they mention in this page are reasonably accurate. http://internetmarketingsynergies.com/mobile-facts/

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If you don't already have a mobile website, here's a nice article listing some tools you could use:
How to build a mobile website

Re: Mobile Websites - a must
 

People does their work in mobile or to their tablets now a days while chillin around or if their out of the office. It's better to have other specifications not just on PC but other devices that has internet connections.