• by Jess Nelson , May 4, 2017

GoDaddy is investing heavily in mobile, announcing several key GoCentral product upgrades and integrations on Thursday that help small business owners run their business from their smartphone.

Released in February, GoCentral is a new service from GoDaddy that allows customers to develop a Web site, create a storefront, and build integrated marketing initiatives all from a mobile device.

The majority of ecommerce transactions on GoCentral Web sites occur on mobile devices, according to GoDaddy, with 65% of purchases made on a mobile device.

Furthermore, 60% of email marketing messages sent from GoDaddy are opened on a mobile device, and 69% of GoCentral sites utilize a mobile email signup form widget. GoDaddy claims that 20% of Web sites created on GoCentral are developed entirely from a mobile device and that 53% of all visitor traffic to Web sites developed on GoCentral derive from a smartphone or tablet.

Considering that mobile is the dominant communications channel for GoDaddy customers, the small business management and marketing company is doubling down on mobile engagement with several new key product updates.

GoCentral customers can now receive order notifications via SMS messaging, meaning that small business owners can manage new business even when they are away from their computer.

GoDaddy has also expanded the ways that customers can pay for products on GoCentral-created Web sites, introducing compatibilities with both PayPal and Apple Pay. 

A new blog feature enables GoDaddy customers to integrate content marketing posts from third-party Web sites -- including Medium, Tumblr and WordPress -- into their Web site development. Since GoCentral already has a set of integrated marketing features, such as email marketing and Facebook syndication, the blog posts can also be repurposed and incorporated into newsletters and other marketing collateral.