Research and statistics
clearly show us that most internet users are increasingly using their mobiles
to access internet on the go. With high end smart phones entering the market,
internet users find it more convenient to check websites, videos, reviews, make
purchases, log into social media websites etc. through their phones. The hospitality
and the travel industry especially, have witnessed a significant increase in
the number of people using their mobile phones to access websites. These
numbers have increased by almost 300 to 400 percent in the past two years. Keeping
this growing trend in mind, it becomes imperative for almost all kinds of businesses
to make their websites mobile friendly enabling them to tap into this segment
of potential customers.
The question is whether to make a site responsive or whether to make a
separate mobile site?
Making a site responsive would mean that
the page - URL, HTML, images, would all remain the same, but the CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets) give different commands based on browser width. This is a less
expensive solution
that enables a single version of a website to auto-adjust and thereby display
properly on all devices.
On the other hand a separate mobile site is
usually hosted on a subdomain (e.g. m.domain.com) or sometimes a subfolder
(e.g. www.domain.com/mobile), but it can also use the same URLs as the desktop website,
and simply serve different HTML, called dynamic serving to desktop and mobile
visitors based on user agent. If the mobile site uses different URLs, they are
often kept parallel with their desktop counterparts (e.g.
www.domain.com/first-page and m.domain.com/first-page), which allows for smooth
redirects based on user agent. But since it’s a separate set of pages, the
options are unlimited. You could choose to have a completely different site
structure, in which case the mobile URLs might be necessarily different.
Search engines may or may not be able to
find a separate mobile site with a separate URL. Therefore most search engines
mostly advocate a one-URL approach for findability and search engine
optimization. Also creating a separate mobile site would involve more time,
money and effort and is an outdated approach compared to creating a responsive
site.
Once the technology to be used has been
decided, the next most important aspect is the design and layout. Following are
some guidelines towards designing an effective, mobile friendly website.
- Simplified page designs with large font size, big touchable buttons that are fat-finger-proof are key features towards designing mobile websites.
- It is very important that the design be in line with the theme of the original website so that internet surfers can identify and relate with the brand, be it through the original website or the mobile website.
- Surfers who access mobile websites are mostly those who are trying to save time and are accessing information on the go. Therefore it makes sense to highlight contact information, and provide links to maps. This will route potential customers directly to you and help the business increase revenues through the mobile site. On the other hand many internet surfers access mobile websites to pass time. To cater to such surfers, you can add videos or other amusements to keep them engaged.
- For a good mobile website it is important to prioritize content, as surfers can only see one thing at a time. Therefore limited information that needs to be conveyed should be highlighted while information of lesser importance should be hidden or else it will unnecessarily crowd the mobile site.
- Limit the use of images and do not use heavy images that will take time to load cause this will only frustrate potential customers.
- Limit the amount of text users would need to type in using dropdown selections or choices saving your customers the time and effort.
Applying these tips and an effective
use of colours, images and information will ensure a great mobile website that
will draw potential customers to your business.
