It’s a fair question, given that we’re now in the age of the “smart phone.” Successful doctors and medical practices typically invest a lot of money into their website and blog, with the hopes that when someone searches for them, while at home on their laptop, they find the practice website and they’re impressed by the design and the photos, among other things. Hopefully this impression turns into a lead, and then ultimately, a new patient. However, what if this potential patient is searching on a mobile phone? Is your medical website or blog mobile-friendly? Will they be impressed?
We’ve recently seen the number of mobile phone users surpass the number of people who use computers. Even more shocking is that internet use on mobile phone is projected to eclipse desktop PC internet usage. This prediction comes courtesy of Mary Meeker, the managing director at Morgan Stanley, who was once dubbed “Queen of the Net” by Barron’s magazine in 1998. In her latest “State of the Internet” report, Meeker says that mobile Internet usage is ramping up substantially faster than desktop Internet usage did, a view she and her team arrived at by comparing the adoption rates of iPhone/iPod touch to that of AOL and Netscape in the early 1990s.
So what does this all mean? It means more than likely your website wasn’t built to proportionally fit onto a mobile phone screen, and if that’s the case, your practice may not be projecting the best image possible. This may turn potential patients away. Keep in mind that a savvy developer will account for varying screen sizes and browsers used when building a website, but making a website mobile-friendly is another story. A mobile-friendly site will not make the visitor have to zoom in or scroll left to right. Appropriate links should be displayed in an easy-to-read and easy-to-click fashion.
Do a quick test by looking up your website on a mobile phone. Is it hard to read after it loads? Do you have to zoom in a lot to see the content or the correct link to click on? Trouble even clicking on the appropriate link because of the spacing? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions you might want to consider creating an alternative, mobile-friendly version of your website.
Now before you get all worked up about already having paid a lot for your existing website, you should know that creating a mobile version of your website is much easier than creating a site from scratch. You simply have to create new pages within your site that will only show up when the site recognizes that the visitor is using a mobile phone.
To learn more about creating a mobile-friendly version of your website please contact TRBO today or call us directly at 877-673-7096 x2.
