How to Get Mobile Traffic to Your E-commerce Website

By guest author Catherine vanVonno

While there’s no shortage of ways you can improve the desktop experience of your e-commerce website, what you want to focus on now is finding ways to bring traffic to your site from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Mobile devices have taken the world by storm, and with it comes the demand for easy access to websites regardless of the device used. If you want to get people to visit your website and ultimately turn them into customers, providing an amazing mobile experience is critical.

Here are three different ways to get mobile traffic to your e-commerce website:

1. Make Sure You Have a Mobile-Friendly Website Theme

This may sound basic but some marketers fail to realize that a mobile-friendly platform is not the same thing as a mobile-friendly theme. While most platforms automatically switch to mobile mode when accessed through smartphones and tablets, some of the themes employed on other websites do not necessarily follow.

There are two ways to make your website theme adaptable to mobile devices:

• Host a separate mobile-exclusive version for your site.
• Employ a mobile-responsive theme throughout your site.

If web design and themes sound too tech-savvy for you, you can always hire professionals to do the job. This leaves you more time on your hands to focus on the content of your website.

2. Use Buttons Instead of Text Links

Remember that mobile devices do not have the point-click navigation that computers have. The screen space in smartphones and tablets is also limited.

Instead of text links that open to a different window, use buttons and menus to fluidly route your readers to a separate page. This makes navigating your website a continuous experience wherein visitors do not have to deal with freezing screens and crashing apps on their gadgets due to text links.

One way to steer clear of text links is to work your web content in such a way that supports this kind of format. Write content that fluidly fits your mobile design. Seek help from professional content writers to ease you through this transition. Outsourcing this leg of the job helps you learn along the way so you become more strategic with drafting your content.

3. Don’t Forget Mobile-Friendly Payment and Opt-In Forms

Payment and opt-in forms are sometimes overlooked by business owners in their efforts to bring a mobile-friendly site to visitors, but this is a mistake you can’t risk. Opt-in forms and payment forms or pages are the doorways to turning visitors into customers. If these forms only fit large screens and do not adapt to other screen sizes, the user will have difficulty keying in their details and may exit out of your page and ultimately write off your website.

These tips for getting mobile traffic to your e-commerce website will help you become a better, more successful marketer.

About the Author:

Catherine vanVonno is the president and executive director of 20Four7VA, a global virtual assistant (VA) service provider. She holds a doctorate degree in Applied Statistics, Research Design and Program Evaluation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and has over 10 years experience in facilitating evidence-based strategic planning, product development, brand management, legislative communications, and medical policy. She is married and has four children.