THE NETMUMS online parenting portal has unveiled a new-look website.
The organization, founded by Co. Wicklow native Siobhan Freegard in 2000, now boasts 1.7million users across Britain.
With 71 per cent of these viewing the site via their mobiles or tablets the website has moved to a more responsive design.
Founder Siobhan Freegard says: “We believe a move to responsive design is the only way sites will survive and thrive. The mums – and dads – who read our site lead such busy lives and want a seamless way to view us with no navigation difficulties or confused designs on different platforms.”
She added: “Half of our visits already come from mobile and one in five from tablets. The pace of that change is certain to increase even faster over the next 12 months.”
Since March 2012 desktop views to Netmums have dropped from 65 per cent to 29 per cent, while mobile device traffic has increased from 27 per cent for phones and eight per cent for tablets to 51 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in March 2014, the firm revealed as it launched its new-look site this month.
The shift came alongside a huge surge in traffic generally, with total visits to the parenting forum rising to nearly 12 million in March 2014 from around 5.5 million in March 2012.
“There’s no doubt a significantly large part of our growth is down to the huge take-up of smartphones and tablets by our readership,” claims Freegard. “Our new responsive layout provides speed and convenience for the reader and advertisers benefit from our investment to stay up-to-date with the latest trends,” she added.
The London-based businesswoman, who received an OBE in December 2013 for her ‘services to families’ via the Netmums site, is confident the revamp will bring further success to the company.
“We know this is the future and we believe it will cement our position against our competitors who are yet to catch up,” she explained.
“While some publishers can be nervous and prefer to wait for feedback or focus groups, with technology decisions it is often about trying to figure out what users want before they know it themselves,” she added.
The results of Netmums’ £100,000 development project, which took nine months to complete, were launched on May 12.
