local business marketing strategyIf you’re wondering, ‘What are those little electronic thingies people are always swishing their fingers on?’ please don’t be offended when I tell you that you’re a little behind the times.

You’re also behind the times if your business doesn’t have a mobile optimized website. This is a site just like the one you already have, but it’s custom-made for those funny electronic thingies everybody has nowadays. You need one if you want to connect with your customers and create new ones, and here are the reasons why.

The Growth of Mobile

Each year, more and more folks are buying smartphones and other devices that they can use to surf the Web. They’re increasingly looking for local businesses while on-the-go. This growth is unprecedented and it’s not slowing down any time soon. You need a mobile site so that they can find your business.

Mobile Sites Are Different

Why go through the trouble of creating a new site that’s mobile optimized? Because desktop and mobiles sites are different. Regular sites look terrible on the small displays of mobile devices. Your site has too much information all crammed together and this doesn’t create a good user experience.

With the mobile Web, user experience is everything. If your site’s hard to navigate, people won’t stay.

Mobile Surfers Are Different

Creating a mobile optimized site lets you give mobile Web surfers exactly what they want when they want it. Their behavior is different from desktop surfers and your mobile site is custom tailored to it.

When people search on the go, they’re looking for location, hours and contact information first and foremost. When you put that information at the very top where they’ll see it quickly, you make it much easier for them to find you.

They also spend time just playing around with their mobile devices. You can put apps on your mobile site and integrate it with other sites they like such as Facebook and Twitter.

SEO Benefits

Mobile sites are indexed by the search engines just like regular sites. This means that your mobile site will show up in search engine results, especially if you target the right keywords.

When you use geographical keywords for your mobile optimized site, this gives you a huge advantage over the competition. Not only are Google and Yahoo mobile-friendly, there are all kinds of local search sites popping up that love mobile sites.

Your Competition Hasn’t Gotten Around to It

Finally, the best benefit of all is the fact that your competitors probably haven’t started creating their mobile optimized sites yet. Although it’s clear that the mobile market is huge, offline businesses are extremely slow to get with it. If you optimize today, you can be the first business in your area to do so, and this gives you a head start.

Creating a mobile optimized website is a great option right now. But in the future, it will be a necessity. This is why you should make your mobile optimized site today.