Found a great presentation “The Myths of Mobile Web Design” about mobile websites and some tips if you are designing a mobile website. The mobile web is growing fast and it is another way to expose yourself.
Mobile websites are different than normal websites found on the web. Mobile devices usually have small screens with limited abilities and cannot process large websites full of graphics because most websites are developed and designed for the web, not the mobile web. Mobile devices requires simpler websites, smaller in size and with few graphics.
The mobile web is growing rapidly. More and more people are focusing on searching the internet via their mobile phone as you don’t need a computer to connect to the net. It is a on-the-move business tool that is always available. This is an excellent opportunity for businesses.
Most searches originating from mobile phones are for local businesses. People searching for restaurants, driving directions, movie theater tickets, etc. The problem is that most local businesses does not have a website optimized for a mobile phone or a dedicated mobile website. Mobile websites are very different from websites viewed from a normal desktop web browser.
Careful steps needs to be taken when optimizing a website to be mobile friendly but it is a discussion for another day. I have written a post regarding the optimization of mobile websites and it can be found by clicking the link below.
To get back to the post topic. More and more people are using the mobile web everyday. Why not step up to this new technology trend that is busy evolving? Your business can definitely benefit by having a mobile website or by optimizing your current website to be mobile friendly. Find below why your business can benefit from having a mobile website.
The emerging mobile advertising market is huge:
A mobile website can help marketers by reaching a global audience of mobile users who might not use the internet over desktop browsers;
Mobile technology enables the delivery of targeted marketing;
Connect marketers with targeted audiences anywhere and at anytime.
Find below some interesting stats regarding the Mobile web
Internet searches from mobile phones grew 104% in 2008 over 2007;
50% of all web searches will happen from mobile devices by the year 2020 according to Pew Internet.
As you can see, the mobile web is increasing and searches on mobile phones are becoming more and more popular. Mobile websites is much different from normal websites as you have to cater for a couple of things to make sure your mobile website is compatible with all the different handsets available on the market.
Find some information below why mobile websites are different to normal websites.
Why mobile websites are different.
Mobile phones has a variety of screen sizes, graphics from normal websites are most of the times too large to display on mobile devices.
Speed. Image sizes needs to be smaller, reducing the download time of the mobile website to the selected handset.
The content should be short but powerful. In other words…get the message out by using less text as found on normal websites.
Most mobile phones are not compatible with Flash and the usage of frames.
Stay ahead
By having a mobile website that is SEO optimized, you are ensuring that users and clients can reach you easier on the net. This is another excellent opportunity to expose your business to the world via the web.
Mobile (.mobi) websites are becoming more popular everyday as it is a on-the-move online business tool. Search engine optimization for mobile websites are busy exploding.
Online marketing for mobile websites are not very different from standard Search engine optimization practices. A couple of mobile specific practices can keep your mobile site optimized.
By optimizing your mobile site for search engines you gain an advantage of this new trend. Here is a couple of tips to optimize your mobile website.
Create mobile friendly content
Don’t overpopulate your pages with images, complex menus and use flash. Remember, mobile websites will be viewed in mobile browsers and flash is not compatible with all the new mobile phones. If you have a complex menu system it will be difficult for the user to browse to all your pages. Keep your menu structure easily accessible.
Get indexed by mobile search engines and mobile directories
There is a couple of good mobile search engines and directories available. View below a couple where you can get listed on.
Exactly the same as the heading. Keep the site navigation simple and don’t over populate the content of the pages. The whole website should be easy to read and navigate.
Valid XHTML code
Use only valid XHTML 1.0 code. WML is already phasing out as a programming language and valid XHTML 1.0 is a clean language making it easier for search engine crawlers and bots to view.
Mobile Sitemaps
You can upload your mobile sitemap to Google “Google mobile sitemaps” and “Yahoo mobile submit” to view how many of your mobile website pages are indexed. Anyone knows about MSN?
Normal SEO practices
All the normal on page and off page SEO practices applies to a mobile website as well. Correct title tags, heading <h1> tags, keywords, meta descriptions, etc must be applied as well to the on page SEO factors of. Link building is always a must.
Mobile websites are increasing by the day and if you optimize your mobile website correctly you can enjoy this new technology trend. If you would like more information regarding the development of mobile websites, contact us or leave a comment below.
It is all good if your mobile site is Search Engine Optimized but what if your mobile site is not compatible with most mobile phones? What if your mobile website is hard to navigate and no one can find anything on your mobile site?
Find below 10 tips on what you should avoid for a mobile website. This was taken directly from:W3C mobile web best practices
User friendly structure: Keep the navigation structure simple. Remember that people will be using their mobile browsers to browse your mobile website and having a complex structure will make sure the user won’t return. Content should be easily accessible.
Keep the graphics simple: Never use graphics for spacing purposes. Don’t use large images that loads slowly. Mobile pages should not exceed 10kb in file size.
Pop-up Windows: Never use pop-up windows informing the user.
Image Maps: Most mobile phones does not support image maps. Do you want to enable features on your mobile site that is only compatible with a few handsets?
Frames: Frames for normal and mobile websites are recognized as being generally problematic. With mobile browsers frames are not compatible at all.
Color: Ensure that the background and foreground color combination provides sufficient contrast.
Tables: Tables does not work well with limited screen sizes. Never use nested tables.
Cookies: Most mobile devices does not support cookies. Never rely on cookies with your mobile site.
Fonts: Mobile phones often has limited support for font sizes and mostly only bold, size and italic is supported.
Input: Avoid text input directly. Provide pre selected input options where available. Keep the keystrokes from the mobile phone keypad to a minimum. Use selection lists, radio buttons and checkboxes instead.
This is just 10 tips on what you should avoid with the development/designing for your mobile website.
