How To Put Your Website In Front Of 700 Million Users

By Author: Abe Cherian
Total Articles: 37
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It’s amazing how far technology has come, in such a short amount of time...

It used to be that we had to be chained to a desk in order to do any kind of research online...

Now, with mobile technology, everyone can stay plugged in while on the go. Everywhere you look, you can almost guarantee you’ll see someone with a cell phone in their hands or ‘‘glued’’ to their heads.

In fact...

Over 2.5 billion people own a mobile phone, 700 MILLION of which are smart phones!

That’s 700 million phones with web browsers built in...

With such a large market, you’d think most website owners would jump at the thought of making their pages mobile-friendly...

If you’ve ever tried to visit a “normal” website on your mobile phone, then you already know how much of a pain it is to navigate...

Whether you stuck around or not, the truth is...most people won’t bother.

That’s why it’s absolutely critical to design a mobile-friendly version of your site.

Below, is a list of...

Things You Need To Know When Designing A Mobile Site

- ...
... Any website that uses tables for its main layout with not display correctly on mobile phones...

- Just like with normal web design, keep in mind that not all phones have the same size screen/resolution...

- Using CSS for your design will maximize its compatibility...

- Using XML or HTML, and setting your character encoding as UTF-8 will, in most cases, be the easiest approach...

- Put your call-to-action/your most important information at the TOP of the page. If your consumers are low on reception (slow load times) or just in a hurry, putting the important info at the top makes it a lot easier...

- Many phones, especially touch-screen models, are kind of hard to enter text into a web form. For this reason, a good practice when designing your site...is you use checklists or radio buttons, instead...

- If you need to include images, be sure they are either .jpeg or .gif format (if there isn’t a lot of color for your images, .gif may be your best best)...

- Make it as easy as possible to navigate! Most phones, for example, don’t provide a back button. Why not integrate one with your app?

- When going mobile, size matters. The maximum page size for a mobile site is 20 kilobytes (kb).

Main takeaway: Regardless of any unlimited data plans, your visitors are paying extra for the ability to use mobile browsing.

With that in mind, keep your site as simple as possible.

Not only will it be easier to move around, it will also prevent your page from hogging up precious bandwidth.

Must-Have Resources:

Additional Info...

Mobile web designs rely of WPL or WML (wireless application protocol). You can learn more here: http://www.perfectxml.com/sybex/Files/2870c01.pdf

Useful Tools...

iPhoney:
http://www.marketcircle.com/iphoney/ (see what your current site looks like to iPhone users)

W3C mobileOK Checker:

http://validator.w3.org/mobile/

Validation tool for mobile-friendly sites.

iPad Peek:
http://ipadpeek.com/

Just as it sounds - a tool to check compatibility between your site and iPad devices.

Google Mobilizer:
http://www.google.com/gwt/n

Plug in your web address and Google Mobilizer cuts away the fat and shows you only the bare essentials - this helps to show where you should optimize your site!)

Free Wire Framing Kits:

If you’re working with a designer, these are an excellent way to show what you’re trying to accomplish!

http://medialoot.com/item/the-ultimate-wireframe-ui-kit/

http://medialoot.com/item/fresh-iphone-ui-kit/

Abe Cherian is an Internet Entrepreneur since 1999. As the founder of AdClickMedia.com, a pay-per-click advertising network, and the CEO of Multiple Stream Media, an online Advertising and Marketing firm, Abe and his team has helped tens of thousands of online advertisers reach 'the right market' at 'the right time', with the 'right message'. To start advertising and driving traffic click here to open your free account: http://www.rent-a-list.com