"We contracted Mobilesitegurus.co.za to make our site mobile-friendly so that it automatically detected the type of mobile device coming in to display the web site accordingly and it was a real eye opener when we started seeing the weekly reports on the number and type of devices accessing our site. Over 50% of the visits to our web site were coming from mobile devices and we've found that the number of page visits on the site has increased substantially," adds Annett. "We attribute this increase to more people on mobile devices engaging with the site now that they can view it more easily and we suspect that in the past these visitors would probably have left the site quickly when they didn't get a good experience."
"MobileSiteGurus did a great job of converting our site to be mobile-friendly and added critical elements that were missing, such as clear calls to action, maps for our office locations and quick-contact buttons, all features that are considered essential considering that a lot of people also visit a web site to get directions to a business address while on the road," notes Annett. "Certainly, Google's 'Our Mobile Planet' study at the end of last year found that 94% of mobile users use their devices to search for local information, products, and services. Also, according to Nielsen Research, smart-phone adoption reached over 55% in the US last year. I think it is likely that South Africa will see similar adoption rates considering the affordability and convenience of a smart-phone device on contract compared to the setup costs of a desktop computer," adds Annett.