If you’ve invested in building a website that looks great on your desktop or laptop computer—congratulations! That’s a great start. But if you aren’t optimized for the mobile experience – consider this a warning – YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY BEHIND!

Yup. It’s a start, not a finish. With millions of people relying on their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) to access the Web, you need to think smaller in order to get bigger. (tweet this) According to Google, Web searches conducted via mobile devices have increased 400 percent since 2010. By 2013, Google predicts that more people will use their smartphones than their computers to go online. And, by 2015, there will be one mobile device for every five people on the planet.

Have you looked at your website to see how it looks on a smartphone? It’s a very different view on a small screen. And even if you can see it, does it accommodate the hand-held surfer? Is it “thumb-friendly”? Does your navigation work quickly and easily? How fast does it load? 71 percent of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop site, and 78 percent will retry two times or less if the site does not load quickly (Compuware). Remember the saying, “You have one chance to make a good first impression”? It was never so true as with mobile sites.

Google launched a helpful site for taking your website mobile: howtogomo.com. Test your current site here to see how mobile-friendly it is, using their mobile emulator (tweet this). Find out how to build (or rebuild) your mobile site.

Check out the case study of Ryland Homes’ site conversion. By investing in building a better website, their mobile registrations increased 300 percent, at a cost of 30 percent less than before they revamped their site. And, since launching in March 2011, Ryland Homes are now seeing home sales that began as leads generated from the mobile site.

Here are three more statistics to consider:

1. 95 percent of mobile device users search for local information on their smartphones;
2. 61 percent call and 59 percent visit a business after finding it on the go; and
3. 90 percent of them act within 24 hours. (tweet this stat)

So, if they can’t find you, where are they going?