A Mobile Site Is Not Just A Little Web Site

By Author: Rhett Bezyak
Total Articles: 2
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To win the hearts of consumers no matter what your market you will have to cater to them. Part of catering to them is providing content in formats they use, and that means you have to have mobile ready content. One channel for your consumers requires mobile development. You would have to have your head in the sand to not have heard all the buzz about mobile marketing of late. In what ways is a mobile website different from a plain old website? If you have been asking yourself these types of questions, stick around to find out.First let's talk about navigation. Your goal should be to get things communicated without a bunch of scrolling. It can be a real challenge to communicate effectively.Mobile sites are really great for local businesses. People looking for a pizza place want pizza, and they want it now. Don't make it hard for them to find the info they want like where you are, your hours of operation, what you serve and any awesome discounts, coupons or incentives. Don't forget that mobile screens are super small. They have to convey your message in the shortest, quickest and easiest to understand language, images and concepts. ...
... Make sure it looks good on a mobile phone! You would be surprise how many business owners haven't even checked out their site on a mobile phone! Essentially this part of going mobile is staging. Think in terms of folks looking up your site while driving. They shouldn't, but they will. Is what you are trying to say and what they are trying to find out easy to grasp with your font choices, graphics, colors and layout? If not, fix it.Graphics can be useful but only in terms of a log or used in clear navigation. Otherwise it's just not the right medium for that. They can take too long to load and they will hit the back button and visit your competitors site instead.Remember that mobile pages should be small. That's because they need to load quickly. Mobile users have no patience with slow pages. Bear in mind that mobile devices come in many shapes and sizes and are served by many different networks. Some are quick and instant while others are extremely slow.Due to these limitations and differences it's extremely important to make sure you use only the most important pieces of information. To accomplish the needs of users on all these different devices pages should be designed to be smaller than 100k, which is really small.A mobile site and regular site will have somewhat different content because the end-user's experience and goal are different. Short and simple is the goal. Easy to grasp quickly and navigate quickly. Finding what you want is important, so the content has to be shorter and very easy to read.Tired of hearing about graphics? Too bad. I have another thing or two to say about them. It is essential that your graphics be clear in their design, not just small and quick to load. Contrast is good because it helps the eye hone in on the important parts.Don't forget that mobile devices are different than typical internet devices and users pay for data transfer. They more they transfer, the more they pay. Your site laden with images costs them their hard earned money. They won't like it stick around for your lack of thought to rob them of their cash. Be thoughtful and skimp on the decorations for their sakes. They'll appreciate that.If you are reading the papers or the web you have probably caught wind of the fact that mobile is taking over desktop usage. You must get in the game or be left behind. Keep in mind that you will potentially have more viewers at your mobile site than you traditional site. Hard to imagine isn't it? But that what is happening. Think how much business you are losing out on by not having a mobile optimized website! To be sure, the mobile visitors are different from your other visitors. They expect to see things optimized and mobile friendly. Want to get started right away? A mobile site design specialist is available to help you. Contact me, admin@mobilesitearmy.com, or call 501-350-7380 for a free quote.