If you’ve been scanning the web-based veterinary landscape in the new year, or attended the 2016 NAVC Conference, you may have noticed the growing conversation around the term “mobile-friendly.” While there may be jokes a-plenty about everyone spending too much time on their smartphones and mobile devices, there is a definite level of truth behind the humor. The reality, regardless of you
r opinion on it, is that much of our everyday lives and routines in some way or another heavily incorporate our mobile devices. Checking our social media accounts, emails, reminders, sending that happy birthday text to your friend, and even checking the weather have all become long-established mobile-based norms that populate our everyday life. So, it would only make sense that your website should be mobile-friendly too, right? Everything else is readily accessible via our mobile devices, and our lives have oriented around that. So, why should your veterinary practice be similarly oriented?
“But, my veterinary website is up-to-date on its veterinary software and content generation,” you might say. And that may very well be true; however, keeping up with the nuts and bolts of your website, as well as regularly updating content, may not necessarily make your website mobile-friendly. The real key is the presentation, the look and feel of your website on a mobile device. It should move seamlessly with the swipe-and-click nature of a mobile device, without requiring constant re-orientation of the smartphone or having to zoom in and out. Luckily for you, this isn’t as hard as you might think.
Google (unsurprisingly, I might add) has created a resource that can help you determine just how mobile-friendly your veterinary practice website is. Visit this Google search engine page, type in your website URL, and it will provide basic analytics to determine how mobile-friendly your website is! But, there’s more. Google has also constructed a blog designed to help you navigate the process of improving your website and making it more mobile-friendly, which can be found here. They have also conducted research on mobile usage trends, and hopefully a few statistics from these studies might be the final push you need to get your website mobile-friendly:
- 77% of mobile searches occur at home or work; 17% occur while on-the-go
- 3 out of 4 mobile searches trigger follow-up action; 36% trigger continued research, 25% triggered viewing a retailer’s website
- 55% of store visits, phone calls, or purchases, happen within an hour of the mobile search
Remember, being mobile-friendly is all about presence and presentation. Potential clients may be searching for a veterinary practice in there area, come upon your practice in the search results, yet be unable to adequately or easily access your web-based content and info because your website is not mobile-friendly, and move on to the next practice. But do not despair, it is easier than you think and your clients will thank you for it.
Additional Resources:
Want to learn more about web-based trends and tips with Google? Check out Think With Google: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com
