The world of mobile technology is moving rapidly. How people are using the internet is changing.  And, how people are engaging with businesses and organizations is shifting dramatically. Where is the proof? Outside of simply watching people on their smartphones, the proof is in the statistics. It is absolutely fascinating to see how mobile interaction with the internet is beginning to surpass the use of traditional desktops and laptops.  Here some meaty statistics that give you a good picture about how people are using their smartphones and how it impacts you:

• 82% Browsed the internet on their phone.
• 61% Search on their smartphones every day.
• 94% of smartphone users have looked for local information; 84% have taken action as a result
• 47% Visited the website of a business or service
• 77% have researched a product or service on their phone.

(Our Mobile Planet: United States of America. Understanding the Mobile Consumer. May 2013. http://think.withgoogle.com/mobileplanet/en. You can read the full report here.)

The statistic above that I want to address is that almost 50% of people are visiting the website of a business or service. So put that in practical terms: 50% of your website visitors are viewing your website on their smartphone.  Now we come to the major problem: When people go to your mobile un-friendly website on their smartphone, the website will be microscopic and unreadable.   They don’t want to have to do a pinch-out gesture to zoom in on your tiny text and then have to scroll to the left or right to read the text on your website. They don’t want to pinch-out and try several times to click on a tiny menu. That is just plain annoying and counter-productive! They want to arrive at a website that is reformatted for their mobile device, where the text is the right size and they can simply scroll up and down, and where they can navigate easily via a nice mobile menu. This is a no brainer.  You can surely bet that if a visitor comes to your website and it is not formatted for their smartphone they will quickly move on to find a website that is!  I know what is what I do.  Isn’t it time to have a “happenin’” website!