According to recent data from Google, more than 44% of the entire US population now owns a Smartphone and 66% of these Smartphone owners access the Internet with their Smartphone every day.
Furthermore, 80% of these Smartphone users never leave home without their Smartphone. Also, it was revealed that 94% of Smartphone users look for local information on their Smartphone and 90% of them take action as a result.
In other words, Smartphones are now an indispensable part of our day-to-day lives.
While the above data are mainstream marketing stats, the reality is that you can still benefit as a blogger.
Just as in their homes, most people have high speed internet access on their phones and as a result not only use it for phone calls, but also to catch up with latest trends, interesting videos, their favorite blogs as well as making purchases online.
The question is how do you benefit from this as a blogger? The answer: by optimizing your blog for mobile users.
A few popular bloggers are now starting to capitalize on the indispensability of Smartphones in our daily lives and a great example is Neil Patel, who was able to increase mobile traffic by more than 100% in just 2 months.
Here are a few ways every blogger can benefit from the growing popularity of mobile devices.
1. Create a Mobile Website
A recent survey from Google observed that 75% of those who were surveyed prefer a mobile-friendly website over a non-mobile friendly website and this only makes sense when we consider how widespread mobile devices are. In other words, this isn’t surprising at all.
What is most surprising, however, is the reaction more than half of those who were surveyed had for websites that are not mobile-compatible. 48% of the people surveyed said that they are frustrated and annoyed when they visit a site that is not mobile friendly.
In other words, just by not having a mobile website you could be irritating a large portion of your website visitors.
There are two ways to go about creating a mobile version of your blog:
- Create a special site mobile users can visit
- Use an application that automatically turns your website into a mobile site when it is visited by mobile users
The first one is the most optimal since there could be issues automatically showing a mobile version of your website to Desktop users should you decide to go with option #2; going for option #1 could create duplicate content issues with search engines, however, since there are two different versions of your site with the same content.
An idea is to go with option 1 and make the mobile version of your blog “no-index”; you can then automatically redirect visits from mobile users who visit the main blog directly, that find you via other sources, to the mobile site. At the same time, you can include an option to automatically switch to a mobile site or to the main site depending on how your blog is accessed.
If you use WordPress, there are dozens of plugins in the WordPress plugin repository that can be used to create a mobile version of your website.
One of the most popular plugins that does this is WP Touch.
You can also create a fancy mobile version of your blog with the Duda mobile app.
2. Create a Mobile App
Another option is to create a mobile app for your blog; this way, without having to visit your website, people will have all your content on their mobile device. It could be on their iPhone or Android phone, having a mobile app will give you numerous advantages.
One major advantage, for example, is that you can benefit from exposure in the app directory of the mobile app store where your app is listed.
3. Create Special Resources for Mobile Readers to Draw People In
Another way to benefit is by creating special resources for mobile users; this could be a kind of guide, a special article, a special video or anything exclusive to people who decide to visit your mobile website or install your mobile app.
By doing this you’ll be able to get more people to use the mobile version of your website, increase your rankings in the app directory and get more exposure for your blog.
4. Make Provisions for Mobile Payment on Your Blog
This is especially important if you sell anything on your website.
Data from a recent Google survey revealed that 67% of those who were surveyed are more likely to buy from a website that is mobile friendly compared to a website that is not; in other words, even if you sell eBooks on your blog or if you have your own course, a percentage of your subscribers will only be willing to pay through their mobile phones. If you don’t make provisions for these people, then you’re missing out and with around 100 million people in the US accessing the internet from their Smartphones daily… that is no small number.
With several quality mobile payment processors like Square, Intuit Gopayments and Pay Anywhere, you can start accepting mobile payments on your blog.
5. Use a Responsive Design
Building a mobile app can be expensive and it isn’t uncommon to build a mobile site only to discover there are bugs on some devices.
There are thousands of different Smartphones people can use to access your blog with countless operating systems; no matter how perfect your mobile design is, it’ll be difficult to get it to look as well as you want it to look on all these devices.
Another way to go about this is to use a responsive blog design; a responsive design automatically adapts to the device accessing your website. In other words, whether your blog is being accessed with an Android phone, an iPhone, a tablet computer or a laptop, it’ll automatically adjust to each device and still look great, as if it was designed for just that device.