DudaMobile Delivers Mobile-optimized Websites in Seconds

Small business owners no longer need to pay big bucks to maintain a separate website that renders well on smartphones and tablets. One company, called DudaMobile—they are fans of “The Dude” character from the film, The Big Lebowski—gives existing sites a mobile-friendly makeover in less than 15 seconds.

Mobile websites are no longer nice-to-have, they are an absolute must-have, argues Ray Almeda DudaMobile’s public relations manager. When they’re on the move, consumers don’t want to have to squint into a smartphone to hunt for an address, pricing information or a contact number. According to the company, 80 percent of consumers won’t stick around if a site provides a bad experience.

Make Your Small Business Website Mobile Friendly

DudaMobile’s platform came about after the company’s founders tried to navigate the Web on the original iPhone. The experience was underwhelming, leading them to “essentially envision a world where people aren’t pinching and zooming,” Almeda told Small Business Computing.

The result is a cloud-based freemium offering that automatically converts an existing website into a mobile-optimized one. A business that already has a website can make it a mobile-friendly site in seconds. “There are 5 million mobile websites on our platform,” said Almeda. For “IT-lite” small businesses, the service provides a “simple and hassle-free mobile website that’s very easy to maintain,” he added.

DudaMobile mobile-friendly websites for small business

DudaMobile creates mobile-friendly websites in seconds.

Customization options let you tweak the layout of your mobile homepage, providing picture perfect results. With a 500 page-view per month limit, the free plan is a low-risk way to get started and to attract local consumers that are glued to their iPhones and Android handsets.

The paid premium plan ($9.00 month-to-month; $7.20 a month if you buy an annual subscription) offers perks designed to boost foot traffic. Chief among them are Click-to-Call and Mobile Maps integration, according to Almeda.

This seemingly straightforward feature can have an immense impact on certain types of businesses, such as restaurants, which are the “most searched-for item on a mobile phone,” said Almeda. “Sixty five percent [of consumers] move onto the next competitor” if they can’t immediately find a phone number on a business’ site. “Five seconds is all they have the patience for,” he said.

As its name suggests, DudaMobile’s Click-to-Call technology places an easy-to-find calling button front and center, allowing visitors to quickly contact an establishment to book a reservation, schedule a session or get more information over the phone. The Click-to-Call button gets pushed 800,000 to 900,000 each month, reported Almeda, meaning that “one out of every five people that check a DudaMobile website are going to use that feature.”

Mobile Website Provides Big Benefits to Small Business

DudaMobile has helped Hungry Town Bike Tours, a small local tourism company in Beaufort, N.C., attract customers and keep the niche business rolling during the summertime months.

Since adopting the DudaMobile platform, Hungry Town Bike Tours has experienced a 21 percent increase in reservations for tours. Every other day, they handle a call from at least one customer using Click-to-Call. Each day, Mobile Maps brings a customer to its front door.

Mobile phones are responsible for an estimated two-thirds of the visits to Hungry Town Bike Tours. A worn welcome mat aside, founder David Cartier praises the platform’s painless conversion process, ease-of-use and consumer-friendly options.

“One great example that comes to mind is a woman we had down here a few weeks ago from New Jersey. She made her reservation and paid for her tour around midnight, all on her smartphone,” stated Cartier in a DudaMobile blog post.

“When I called her the next morning to confirm the reservation, I asked her what her experience was with our site. She told me it was unbelievably easy,” said Cartier.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Small Business Computing. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

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