The following is a post from Meghan Veroneau, TIG Global Marketing Coordinator.

Still don’t have a mobile compatible website? You’re not alone. In fact, only about 5% of online businesses have a mobile compatible website. The best way for you to stay ahead of the curve, would then be to have a mobile compatible website. So, remind me again why you don’t have one yet?

No doubt about it, not having a mobile compatible website heading in to 2012 is going to hinder your business growth capabilities, so here are five good reasons you should have a mobile site going into 2012.

Mobile Screen Size

Let’s be honest, the size of a smartphone screen is nowhere near the same as a tablet, laptop, or desktop screen. In fact, smartphone screens are downright small comparatively. If you direct mobile users to your main website, they are going to have to do a whole bunch of scrolling and zooming to make the site readable.

If consumers find your website looking like the picture on the left, it will take them much longer to find the information they are looking for, it can deter them from being a potential customer. Sites essentially should be a miniature version of your main website and designed with the mobile user in mind. Meaning, navigation needs to be easy and something that can be done with the touch of a finger. By having a mobile friendly website, consumers can find the information they are searching for faster and easier, given the minimal screen size.

Faster Load Time

Let’s be honest, consumers are all a little impatient. We all want to see things load fast. A mobile compatible site is going to load light-years before the desktop version. Think of the mobile version of your site as the slimmer version of your main website, it’s going to load much faster since you’ve gotten rid of the unnecessary items hogging up the space. Speed matters on a mobile site, just as much as it matters on a desktop site. I know I’ve run into this issue several times with my Blackberry; when it happens, I only wait around if it’s a necessary task to be completed, because I know then I’m going to get stuck scrolling around the page and waiting for it to load the zoomed screen.

Read the rest of the reasons at: tigglobal