Over the past three years, mobile traffic has spiked exponentially. Since the advent of devices like the iPhone and Android phones, and now tablet computers like the Apple iPad equipped with 3G connectivity, mobile browsing is becoming a quick alternative to using traditional computers for browsing the web. ABI Research revealed a study stating that mobile traffic is expected to increase eightfold from 2010 to 2014.
It only follows that companies should be expecting an increasing amount of visitors to be viewing their websites with mobile devices. Many websites with high traffic have already coded their sites so that they appear simpler and easier to use on mobile devices, especially iPhones and iPads. Some websites have specific HTML and CSS coded so that their appearance is different when viewed in portrait or landscape.
Additionally, many mobile devices do not support Adobe Flash. While some companies may rely on flash for their website interface, HTML5 is an alternative that is gaining rapid popularity. Today, even JavaScript can emulate much of the functionality of Flash. If you are using a service like Google Analytics, it is easy enough to find out how often visitors are viewing your website on a mobile platform by checking to see which browser platforms your visitors are using.
It is important to keep in mind the nature of mobile visitors. People often use mobile browsing for the purpose of finding information quickly, and they expect that the websites they visit cater to that purpose. If it is difficult to navigate your website on a mobile device, it is likely that the user will go back to Google and look for information (or services) elsewhere.
