Yesterday I read a tweet from Jonathan Howe about the rise of mobile traffic on one of the sites he currently manages. It brought back to mind a recent stat that I read from Mary Meeker stating that by 2014 majority of internet traffic will come from mobile devices.
Think about that for second. This means that a majority of people coming to your church website will be using a mobile device. I don’t know about you, but that raises a whole set of questions when planning and thinking through strategy for your church website. Is your church website ready for the mobile users? What does it mean to have a website that is “mobile ready”? Can you have a great mobile and desktop experience?
There are no easy answers to those questions. However, you can begin the process of getting your church website ready for your mobile visitors. Here are a few ideas to get you going.
Think Mobile First When Designing Your Site
When you are thinking through your church website design and function, you are going to need to think about mobile version first versus thinking about the desktop. So instead of designing around a screen that is 1366×768, you are should be thinking about screen that is 640×960.
Now keep in mind by doing this you are going to create some problems. One of which is that you will need reevaluate your content and whether or not it’s mobile friendly. Are your articles too lengthy? Are you using outdated technologies like Flash? Are your menus simple enough to fit on a mobile screen?
Try a Responsive Design
One way provide a great mobile experience is to create a responsive website design. A responsive website design “responds” to the size of the screen and adjusts accordingly. Here is an example from the Village Church:
See how the content remains the same, however the website elements responded by becoming smaller? Now if this seems difficult don’t worry. There are plenty of great responsive templates out there (click here to see a few), as well designers who know how to creates responsive sites as well.
Use a Mobile Service or Theme
If you don’t have time or don’t want to change the way your site looks there are some alternatives for creating a mobile site. One option is using services like Mobify or MoFuse. With these services you can create a mobile version of your church website without having to alter the desktop version. If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin like Jetpack and WPtouch or purchase a mobile theme.
Just like social media, mobile devices are here and won’t be leaving us anytime soon. The quicker you can get your site ready for mobile users, the quicker you will be providing a better web experience for not only your members but future visitors as well.
Question: Is your church website mobile ready? If so, how did you make it happen? Click here to comment below.
Photo Credit: Robert S. Donovan via Compfightcc