As a New Jersey restaurant owner you’ve probably noticed how attached your customers are to their mobile phones. From texting at the dinner table to surfing the Internet, mobile phones are engrained into our daily lives. And the rise in mobile usage is projected to continue. With mobile web traffic set to increase 2600 percent in four years, restaurant owners need to consider how a mobile world affects their business.

Consider this: 88 percent of all web searches related to restaurants are made from a mobile phone. Put simply, if you’re not adjusting to a mobile world, you’re behind. This is especially true for restaurant owners, as your customers – more than any other industry – turn to their smartphones to connect with you. Customers use their mobile phones to read your menu, find store hours and call you with a click of a button.

So, can your mobile customers view your webpage on a small screen?

Customers today expect websites to be mobile friendly and easy to navigate with their fingertips, without having to pinch and zoom. And with mobile browsing speeds getting faster, the desktop computer is no longer the access point to the Internet. Mobile websites are the new digital storefront.

When you make the move to go mobile, consider the following tips to make your site interactive for your hungry diners:

• What’s for dinner? Menus should be accessible on a mobile phone. It should be a web page that is easy to scroll through rather than a downloadable PDF or a menu that requires specific software to preview.

• X marks the spot. Your website should sync with mapping features such as Google Maps so that a user can find you in a search and get directions from their current location. Ninety-five percent of searches are for local businesses. And with mobile restaurants, such as food trucks, on the rise in New Jersey, a mobile website is a no-brainer to broadcast your location.

• Make a reservation. If you offer an online reservation system, make sure it’s easy to use and find on a mobile phone. Your customers will appreciate the ease and convenience of using their mobile phones to make reservations.

• Call with one click. It’s important to make it easy for mobile users to contact you. The goal is to turn a search into a reservation. And the simplest way to do this is to enable a “click to call” function on the mobile site. With just one click, patrons can call you from their mobile phones.

• The dining room is open. Make sure diners can find your hours of operation so they can plan accordingly.

Building a mobile presence will help your restaurant get hungry patrons into your dining room. Once your mobile site is up and running, in no time, your customers will be scrolling through your menu, call with one click and reserve a seat from the palm of their hands.

It’s a mobile world, which is an advantage to restaurant owners who see the opportunity to keep connected.

Madison Miner is CEO of WompMobile, a company that converts regular websites to mobile ready, making them accessible and searchable on smartphones. For more information please visit: www.wompmobile.com.