The rise of mobile is imminent. With more and more people using a Smartphone and with tablet PCs so available these days, a lot of websites are moving towards a more ‘mobile’ friendly website. The advantage of having a mobile website is apparent where it is more optimized for the smaller screen size and the overall look of a mobile website is more intuitive and easier to understand. Mobile websites are usually less congested with text and it is easier on the eye of the site visitor. The great thing about a mobile website is that is has proven to help improve your site’s conversion and visitor retention rate from mobile visitors. Hence, if you are one of those website owners or marketer who is looking into creating a mobile friendly website, you need to first understand some of the elements below to help you create a good mobile friendly site.
First element: Auto Detecting Mobile Devices.
The very first element you will need to implement on your mobile website is the ability to detect the device of the incoming traffic source. This way, only mobile surfers will see the mobile site and those who are using a normal PC or laptop will never be redirected to your mobile site. This is very important because for a normal pc user, they are sitting comfortably on their pc with a larger screen and thus information will be easily read and absorbed by the user.
However, users of a mobile device are usually on the move and they are always ‘busy’. Hence they will not have the time or convenience to slowly learn about your website. They need to be fed the right information the moment they arrive on your mobile site and everything needs to be kept simple. Any sign of complications or a lot of reading required, these mobile surfers might just hit the close button and leave your website. Therefore, make sure that your mobile site has this ability to differ between a normal surfer and a mobile surfer.
Send Element: Auto Resize.
Because of the inconsistency of the size and resolution of the mobile devices and tablets out there (different models and brands utilize different screen size and resolution), you need to ensure that your mobile website is smart enough to resize automatically to the ‘correct’ size according to the screen size that your site visitors are using. You won’t want your mobile site to appear out of the screen when the page loads or you won’t want your site to look extremely small on the screen of any device.
It should fit properly to most of the device. It is ok if it is slightly bigger or smaller on some devices so long as they can see all the important links, buttons and offers for your mobile audience. Here’s a general rule of thumb, code your mobile site accordingly and make sure that you test your mobile sites on several of the more popular devices on the market. This way you can be sure that it works for most of the people out there.
Element Number 3: A link back… to the main site.
Sometimes a mobile user might for some reason want to look at your main website. Hence, you must ensure that you have a link at the bottom of your mobile website that will take them to your main site. People could be looking for some specific information on your website which they found earlier on a PC or whatever the reason that may be, they should be given the option to do so.
Some of the earlier mistakes made by some mobile marketers and site developers is that there is no option for people to visit the main website at all and thus this has caused some of the mobile site visitors to get frustrated and leave the mobile site leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Trust me… you do not want that at all.
The Fifth Element… Bigger buttons.
That’s right, one of the main things about modern smart phone devices is that these devices are usually touch friendly and people will use their fingers (and thumbs) to navigate through your site. Imagine the small standard text link that we see on a typical website, people are going to have a very hard time trying to click on that link. Instead what you will do is provide bigger thumb size buttons to replace these links so that your mobile visitors can quickly and easily click on them without any problems at all.
Usually we will try to make a button at least the size of a thumb or two. That is the minimum size that is required and that is what you should use as a general rule to follow when create your mobile site. The next rule to keep in mind is that there should be a sizable amount of space between each link and buttons to avoid people from clicking on the wrong links unintentionally.
Lastly…
You will want your mobile website to load fast. This means your site should not be too big of a size and you will also want your mobile site to look stunning because this will leave a good impression on your site visitors. A good mobile site will help brand your company as well and if you apply proper marketing tactics and smart offers on your mobile site, you will definitely see a huge improvement on your sales chart coming from mobile visitors alone. Just remember… mobile sites are the future.
