Look around you. How many people are staring at their smartphone or tablet? Like, most of them, right? These days, people are attached to their mobile devices. (Not literally, of course. Well, not yet, anyway.)

People aren’t just checking Twitter and TMZ on these devices — they’re conducting their entire lives on them, and that includes seeking information about businesses, and making purchases.

If your small business has a website, you have to make sure that website is optimized for computers, smartphones and tablets, or you risk losing customers. Take a look at these statistics Google released last year, via Google Mobile Ads Blog:

[caption id=”attachment_662” align=”aligncenter” width=”720”]Googlemobileleads.com Googlemobileads.com[/caption]

 

See that? 67% of mobile users say when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they’re more likely to buy a site’s product or service, and if a site isn’t mobile-friendly, 61% will move on to a site that is, as illustrated by the cartoon customer above with steam coming out of his ears. (How adorable is he? Still, steam coming out of ears is Not Good.)

To break it down: If a customer isn’t able to get what they want from your business on their phone or tablet, they’re going to conduct business with your competitor. To add insult to injury, they’re going to leave your site harboring some pretty bad feelings about your business, and they may not keep those feelings to themselves. Check out these additional stats:

 

• 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly

• 36% said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting those sites

• 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company

• 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

 

Losing a customer’s business is bad, and having that customer feel annoyed enough to share their negative experience on social media is worse.

So, what do you, as a small business owner, do? Adapt or die. You talk to your web designer immediately, and make sure your website has switched over to responsive web design.

And if you’re just starting out and need a basic site for your start-up, give Buildicus a try. We make sure your site is responsive on all devices, and — even better — you can try us out for free for 30 days.

Any questions about RWD? Shoot me an email any old time at [email protected].