Should You Downsize Your Web Site?

Are you missing your market because your small business website isn’t mobile-friendly?  You see them everywhere – those 20-somethings wandering through life texting each other and viewing the web through miniature screens.

Many more consumers are using mobile devices to access the web.  Younger generations in particular are spending more and more time on iPhones and such.  But most web sites these days are meant for large screens.  So some small businesses are looking at the prospect of having to make their websites fit into a much smaller viewing space.

Of course, the opposite phenomenon is also playing out.  For those of us on the web daily, we are moving to bigger screens and more of them.  For example, I have two screens, and I mostly work off my large 21-inch monitor.  My husband has three – I haven’t figured out how he does it, but I’ll probably follow suit one of these days.  But just when I got my big 20 inch computer screen, the rest of the world is going smaller.

As usual, the answer is, “It depends.”

Does a change to mobile-friendly  fit your market? The Wall Street Journal reports that 41.9 million people accessed the Internet via mobile devices in November 2008.  That’s a lot of people, but is it the people you want to reach?  The audience for my business is primarily Baby Boomers and these aren’t the people who are mobile users.  If I were trying to reach business people who travel or younger consumers, it might make sense.

What’s wrong with your current site? If your site is busy and complicated, you might need to simplify it anyway.  Whether you are trying to reach people via mobile or big-screen Internet, you have only a few seconds to grab their attention.  Making your site simpler and easier to use might make sense, no matter what else you do.

Is this a shopping site? If you are selling a lot of products, it may not be feasible to cut back on content to make your site more mobile-friendly.

Ask your market. Run a contest or an opinion poll and ask your users if they prefer to view your site via mobile or large screen.  Then use this information to make your decision.

Image: Newscom