Mobile traffic accounts for almost 50% of all online and mobile users. 51% of the users are more likely to use a branded mobile app versus a mobile-optimized website on a smartphone.
Most of the startups that are launching platform-based startups like handyman hiring platforms, temporary worker platforms, gig marketplaces, beauty and spa services, on-demand doctors, nurses, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. are going not only mobile-first but also mobile-only.
While it makes sense to go mobile-first. We believe when startups stick to mobile apps only, they are missing out on some important things. A mobile website along with a mobile app is the best strategy and here is why we think that.
First: The Initial User Experience
First and most important is the entire web traffic coming from Google and search engines is not usable for the mobile app-only startups. Even the visitors coming from the mobile browsers are forced to download an app, signup with a long process and then they can go on and perform the action that you want them to perform.
From the user experience point of view, this is a major problem as many customers drop out in the process with every step in the funnel. Definitely, a signed-up user is one of the most important goals but the bigger goal is a lesser cost for customer acquisition and ultimately the transaction. The customer can then always download the app for a better user experience on repeat transactions.
Second: All that Organic Search Traffic
Everyone in lead generation, sales, and marketing would tell you that organic search traffic is gold. With an extremely expensive paid google keyword search, Facebook and linked-in paid ads, the organic search traffic is the best investment for any company.
Without a mobile responsive or mobile-only website, you are losing in on all that organic search traffic.
"Your Platform Workers Profiles and if they are sharing it on their websites, it's very good for organic traffic"
yes, you heard it right, the data and the profiles that you have on your workers for handymen businesses, the restaurants, and their menus, or the worker's profiles. That is very valuable data for google. if that data is shared by these workers on their website, it's outright gold because that is bringing authority to your website.
These web pages if properly SEO optimized with the right keywords, can bring huge organic traffic for you over time. Definitely, you need to motivate the professionals to share their profiles on their Facebook pages, websites, etc. Some workers/handymen/restaurants can use these are their main website
Food Apps Growth Hack
There is a common growth hack among that one food app deployed to gain a large amount of traffic. They created a unique URL for every restaurant on their website. They went out and even bought the domain for that restaurant which had no website before. All the traffic for that particular restaurant started coming on their website and this meant orders and very cheap customer acquisition.
Final Thoughts
Definitely, the answer is that you need a website at this time or not based on your initial budget when you are starting out, it makes a lot of sense to consider a website from day one as search engine traffic takes some time to come in. At OnDemandstartups we recommend our customers build a mobile responsive website from day one especially startups where there is a user profile and even for food delivery and grocery startups.