Still need convincing about mobile traffic? Look at this!

personally, i think a dedicated mobile site is not the way to go.

a responsive site, properly configured, will adapt to display size, which includes people who are using tiny monitors on their computers. using a mobile site also means that if somebody sends you a link from a mobile device, and you open it on a desktop, it may open in mobile form.

i find that last one particularly annoying

Have to agree to disagree

My main issue is a page with a lot of information on it, and sometimes the main purpose of the page, or call to action can be streamlined specifically for a mobile device, which will increase conversions.

I don't understand the mobile link issue being sent from a desktop. I assume this must be a configuration issue?

If you open one of our mobile pages on a desktop, it will simply redirect to the desktop version: m.mylocalservices.co.uk

Yet I notice on Facebook, their mobile pages stay as mobile pages on desktops So do some Google pages.

I think, when it comes to the mobile websites you need to consider three main things:

1. The website needs to load fast - no one will want to wait long on mobiles, and they may incur additional charges for mobile broadband
2. Everything valuable should be within a range of thumb (buttons, calls for actions, etc.)
3. Scrolling is cool, clicking on tiny links isn't - so make sure your links are smartphone-optimised (by adding tags to the labels) and no too small to click on.

Lastly, having a online contact form or a button with direct "call me" are also beneficial.

Remember - you've got just a couple of seconds to get the mobile user's attention!

Anyway, thanks for the post, I can't understand people who think mobiles and tablets are silly things for tech geeks and there's no point in making the responsive website.

And yet even some medium sized businesses aren't picking up on this. I see 50% of traffic from mobile devices already for one of the websites I manage.

For small businesses who aren't selling directly through their website, a lot of WordPress themes have easy-to-implement responsive options which I've been very happy with.

As a non web designer, (so purely surmising) I'd imagine most if not all web designers would be offering responsive designs as standard for wordpress/CMS based sites, or basic mobile alternatives if responsive didn't tick the buttons for whatever reason.

Still seeing on a daily basis new businesses launching with fairly basic (so assuming non professionally designed) websites which aren't mobile friendly.

If any web designers are willing to answer (he says cheekily) would you charge extra for a site to be visible on a mobile device, or is this to be expected as standard, and not as an optional extra?

Hi Steve,

As a web designer myself I have been creating responsive websites for a while now. I do not charge any extra for this.

As Wordpress is my main platform, I would be selling my clients short if I didn't create a site that looked good and worked well on mobile devices.

Your stats in the original post say it all. More and more people are using their phones or tablets to go online. If your business website doesn't work on such devices, then you are losing a large amount of potential customers/clients. No business in the world can afford to do that.

I kind of suspected/hoped that would be the case. Like you say, if you are using something like wp as the platform, then there's no excuse.

Just find it baffling the sheer amount of non friendly sites I see passing through on a daily basis!