mobilemunkMobiMunk answer the question with a clear yes, saying that with all the fuss about consumer smartphone adoption and increased smartphone search activity versus desktop, local businesses are forced to shift their focus from online marketing to mobile marketing. In fact, this in turn has caused a drastic uptick in businesses scrambling to make their sites mobile responsive.

According to Statista, approximately 164 million users will own smartphone devices in 2014 and by 2018 that number is expected to jump to 220 million. Google's advice is therefore to create a fast mobile site with big buttons and text, besides keeping things simple to complete tasks easily.

Market research firms Sterling Research and SmithGeiger, for instance, have been mentioned in Forbes, stating that:

  • Two-thirds of smartphone users say a mobile-friendly site makes them more likely to buy a company's product or service, and 74% say they're more likely to return to the site later.
  • 61% says that if they don't find what they're looking for (probably within about five seconds), they'll click away to another site. Half say that even if they like a business, they'll use its site less often if it doesn't work well on their smartphone.
  • 72% of users say a mobile friendly site is important to them, but a nearly unanimous 96% have visited sites that aren't.

Companies like MobiMunk design and build business sites at an affordable monthly fee versus the high out of pocket development costs merchants have been used to spending. They also embed coupons, menus, video and most any other feature all with the touch of one button.

Mobile SEO is also integrated to better help your site to get discovered through search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

According to Mike Gorodetsky, Director of Sales at MobiMunk, businesses are increasingly becoming more aware of the need for mobile responsive sites. "We've seen a drastic increase of calls and email inquiries over the past 4 months from businesses looking to get set up with our services.

Whatever the path you choose, since mobile is here to stay, it could be useful to check out MobiMunk. One of their clients, Kevin Gerdes of LA Sitter, says he got positive feedback from his existing clients: "Since MobiMunk created my mobile responsive site, some of our repeat clients have mentioned how much easier it is to contact me. They can call us with the click of a button and see the list of all our services with ease. For today's mobile savvy client, it's the most important thing to earn and keep their business."

By MediaBUZZ