mobileThose who do not have a mobile-optimized website, yet, will be among the digital losers at the end of the year, as the course has already been set for this. That’s why companies should speed up their digital presence and stop beating around the bush.

In the digital world, as is well known, data speaks volumes. You can capture almost everything by listening to the digital airwaves and observing the users' privacy. And what do you see? Countless statistics, surveys and data collections show that any target group segment remains informed and entertained, or buys something online, via smartphone. Sitting in from of a desktop or laptop is practically a thing of the past.

Mobile surfing and online shopping are on the other hand steadily growing, and not only because the sales of smartphones have exceeded the sales figures of desktop computers, but the data volume of the world's Internet traffic via mobile devices has risen dramatically, too.

Whoever wants to make the very own company, brand or entire product catalogue digitally discoverable should therefore act and consider all offers from the point of view of a smartphone owner. The design of web pages of any kind should be geared towards smartphone users, rather than the presentation on a large monitor.

No matter if the users are in a shop or searching online: Whoever is looking for products and services must first be able to find the desired brand. Many websites are unfortunately completely outdated and no longer meet the current technical requirements that mobile Internet usage entails. Who still wants to expand the website with three fingers on the smartphone display to read the contents in a reasonable size? Or who uses the horizontal menu at all?

Simplicity, ease of use and speed are most important for mobile offers

Basically, the users expect a relatively simple handling of mobile offers. Although that’s generally well known, many companies are still overloading their customers with information. A good digital presence, however, is trumping with a smaller amount of information and benefits from the user's active needs by providing perfect user guidance.

Consider, for instance, that no visitor navigates anymore with the mouse, rather searches for information by touchscreen. A small display provides for less irritation here and the basic lack of Flash and Java is generally seen as a positive aspect when surfing mobile. So, don’t even thing about using a proprietary Flash video player on your company website anymore.

Fast loading a must - despite videos

Speaking of content: If you offer videos and pictures on your page, make sure the loading time is fast. This means data should be delivered as versions adapted for mobile application experience as well as high-resolution premium content for desktop users through the website. A mobile-optimized website should not really load a high-resolution photo or a video completely in the background and load the data volume of the users to the pain threshold, but use a matching version of the picture material optimized for the size ratios on the smartphone display, as well as a non-HD -optimized form of a video.

Your mobile advertising will only be seen on smartphones when users are redirected to a mobile optimized landing page. So, all those who have not optimized their website for smartphones yet, will no longer be seen in the minds of consumers, which sounds the death knell for digital marketing.

Already last year, Google has introduced the mobile search results and voted mobile to be the main index. The search giant enhanced massively the status of the mobile index, while the desktop version got graded as a secondary alternative. The most relevant actor for the discovery of brands, products and services has parked that way all non-optimized Internet sites on the siding and penalized their operators. Hence, companies should influence the user experience positively and make sure there are no long loading times, complex use or difficult dialog options, especially during the purchase decision process. What has already been the case for desktop-based websites for ages, mobile websites must be able to fulfill blindfolded.

Anyone who prepares his digital presences for an optimal mobile experience will at least be able to reach the target line at the end of the year. But rest assured that all non-mobile optimized offers will inevitably been left behind and annihilated by the competition.

By Daniela la Marca