What Happens If You Don't Convert Your Website to an App?

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You might not be able to download apps directly from your website, but that doesn’t mean you can’t launch an app. In fact, having your own stand-alone app is almost a necessity to give users the best possible experience with your business. Understanding how an app can help you grow your business and how exactly you get one are different things. As many businesses don’t have developers on staff, converting your website to an app may seem insurmountable. However, there are plenty of options available for those who want to make the most of mobile while continuing to operate through their website. A mobile-friendly website is always going to be the best option for any company that wants to establish a digital footprint and offer customers access to information about products and services. While it isn’t as user-friendly or engaging as an app, it offers some great benefits that may not be apparent at first glance.

Why You Should Care About Apps

While there are plenty of reasons to want to change your website to an app, the most important is user engagement. What good is a website if you can’t entice users to spend time on it? On a mobile device, users want apps. They want apps because they want to download the content they want and want it to be easy to access. Near-instant access to information and the ability to download and save information for offline viewing are huge benefits that apps offer that websites don’t. The other big benefit is that you get your own domain name and don’t have to share it with the rest of the world. This means your app will be easy to find and makes it easy to create a visually appealing landing page that users will love.

The Benefits of a Website

Even though apps are the preferred method of interacting with businesses on mobile, a website offers some distinct benefits over apps. One of the biggest benefits of a website over an app is the ability to link to other sites. While there are a lot of reasons why you’d want your own app, accessibility is a major one. If you want to link to other sites, a website can do that. This is not possible with an app, as it is all contained within that one experience. Another big advantage of a website is that it can be shared and linked to. Websites are indexed by search engines, so you can use your site to promote your products and services to people who aren’t even using mobile devices. If you choose to make your website mobile-friendly, you can take advantage of features like AMP to make sure it’s optimized for mobile. You can’t do any of that with an app, so your content is limited to the people using it on their mobile devices.

Ask Users to Convert Your Website to an App

If you’re hesitant to convert your website to an app and you have an established user base, you can still request that people download your app. Just make sure you have a clear call to action and a reason why they would want to download your app instead of just visiting your site. One way you can do this is by adding a button that says “download our app” on your website. This button will link to an app store where users can download your app. You can also add a button that says “download our app” on your app store listing, but it might be more effective to add “download our website” as your call to action. This will link people back to your website, but with a better idea of what the app offers. You can also add a button on your site that says “download our app” with a link that takes people to the app store.

Hiring a Developer to Convert Your Website to an App

If you’re ready to make the switch to a fully-fledged app, you’ll want to hire a developer to get the job done. However, you can expect to spend a decent amount of money on the conversion. While you can expect to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 to hire a developer to convert your website to an app, you can expect to pay $100,000 or more if you want to hire a developer to create a brand new app from scratch. Before you hire a developer, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want your app to do. Be sure to outline your goals and what you want to accomplish with the app so the developer knows exactly what they’re getting into. If you already have a website, you can also hire a developer to convert it to an app, but expect to pay more for this.

Developing an App from Scratch

If you want to make the jump to an entirely new app, you can hire a developer to build one from scratch. This will cost you more money, as you get everything from scratch, but it may be worth it if you have a very specific idea in mind that would be difficult to build off an existing app. If you hire a developer to build an app from scratch, you can expect to pay between $100,000 and $500,000, and possibly more, depending on your specific needs. Before you start looking for a developer, figure out exactly what you want your app to do and how you want it to function. You can also build a prototype that tests out your app and gives the developer something to work with. With a prototype, the developer will know what you want and can give you an estimate based on the complexity of the app.

Meetup for Finding Developers and Testers

If you aren’t sure which route to take or you simply don’t want to spend the money to hire a full-blown developer, you can also choose to find a freelancer on a platform like Meetup. This will let you test out different developers to see who you like best and get a feel for what they can do. You can also use Meetup to find testers who can help you figure out if your app is ready for release. Testers can provide valuable feedback that can help you make your app better before you start pushing it out to the wider public.

Browser Extension Apps

If you don’t want to build an entirely new app or convert your website to an app, you can also try browser extension apps. These simply plug into your browser and let you download content directly to your phone. For many businesses, this is the best option, especially if you don’t have the money for a full-fledged app conversion or building a new app from scratch. Browser extension apps are also easier to build and cost a lot less than a full-fledged app, so you can get your app out there without having to spend a fortune.

Summary

Converting your website to an app lets you take advantage of all the benefits that come from having a dedicated app but without the extra work. You can also use a combination of browser extension apps and website-to-app links to give users access to the content they want quickly and easily. If you want to get serious about mobile and download rates, you need to have an app. There are plenty of ways to get started, whether you hire a developer or use a freelance platform, like Meetup, to test out some ideas.