HOW FRIENDLY ARE YOU

I’m sure the answer is ‘very’.

You’re a pleasure to be around. You’re the first person to volunteer when a friend is moving apartments and needs a hand. You stick around after parties to help the host clean up.

But, is your website as friendly as you are? And more specifically, is it mobile-friendly?

With nearly 46% of web traffic and 23% of eCommerce being generated from mobile devices and tablets*, you better be sure your winery’s website is playing nicely with mobile browsers.

When was the last time you checked if your site is mobile-friendly? Can’t remember? Pull it up on your phone and ask yourself these 4 questions:

• Does my site use Flash? Flash does not play well with mobile browsers and iOS does not support it. What does that mean? All those guests in your tasting room glued to their iPhones,  can’t see Flash-based sections of your site. [Untitled]
• Do I have to pinch-to-zoom? Save the pinching for St. Patty’s Day. Any text that is so small you have to pinch-to-zoom in to read it is too small. Also think about removing non-critical, text-heavy sections on your mobile site, like detailed winemaker’s notes or vineyard descriptions. Let them taste the ripe Granny Smith apples for themselves rather than squint to read about it.
• Do I have to scroll horizontally? While a small amount of vertical scrolling is acceptable, a good indicator a site is not mobile-optimized is excessive scrolling. A slider with left and right arrows is a good way to display single products on a mobile page that on a desktop has many products listed horizontally on a single page.
• Are my buttons big enough? When it comes to mobile, make those buttons BIG. Especially that ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’ button. The last thing you want is your soon-to-be customer fat-fingering their purchase intent, getting frustrated and abandoning the sales path.

Still not sure how mobile-friendly you are? Don’t worry, Google can tell you. Just pop on over to its Mobile-friendly Test. It’s free, all you have to do is type in your site’s URL and Google will be the judge and jury. If you site does not pass, Google doesn’t just leave you hanging, but gives you helpful feedback and even shows you how your site displays on a simulated mobile phone.

Yes, just like a good friend, Google will point out your flaws, but unlike a good friend, won’t buy you a drink afterwards.

*IBM DIGITAL ANALYTIC BENCHMARK