via Johan Larsson (Flickr)
You’ve built the business case and finally received the approval to move forward with your mobile initiatives, including a site optimized for mobile devices. Now what? If you are like the vast majority of marketers, mobile has opened a wealth of possibilities, but can also seem overwhelming at times.
Here are five keys to get you started:
1. URL: One of the most important elements in rolling out a mobile-optimized site is to make sure that it lives on your primary domain. For example, if a visitor hits your URL from a mobile device, they should be pointed to a URL similar to http://m.CompanyName.com, NOT http://CompanyName.MobileHostingProvider.com! The second example has dire SEO consequences, causes confusion for users, and is a sure sign of an amateur execution. If you wouldn’t do it with your main website, don’t do it with your mobile version.
In addition, your mobile site should have device detection software so that users are automatically directed to the mobile version of the site and are not forced to enter a mobile-specific URL.
2. WAP + Webkit: Analyzing your business objectives, marketing strategy, customer technographics, and budget will determine the degree to which you customize the mobile-optimized experience for various devices. If your objective is to provide basic information, a WAP site may just do the trick, but if commerce, social integration, and multimedia are part of the plan, Webkit is the way to go. If you move forward with both versions, device detection is critical, ensuring the correct version is served to the device being used to access the site.
3. Content: Avoid the common pitfall of trying to replicate the entire tethered web experience and only include the content and functionality that is of use to your mobile users. With that said, through smart navigation and content optimization, your mobile-optimized site can provide a robust experience for your customers. Writing with SEO in mind, using HTML 5 for video, and using lightweight images that don’t add unnecessary weight to a page are also important.
4. Social Integration: The major social services have APIs available, making the integration of social media as straightforward as you have come to expect with your traditional online properties. Integration allows people to share at the point of inspiration, post reviews, and stay connected with your brand while away from their computer.
5. Actionable: Unless your sole objective is to provide static content to your mobile users, the site should include at least one conversion mechanism. Depending on your brand, these conversions can include a purchase, click-to-call, email capture, etc. Of course, analytics should be included so that conversion behavior can be tracked and optimized.
Have you rolled out a mobile-optimized site? Any tips that you would add to the list?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sean – Good post. Your 5 tips are spot on.
You touched on design in your content tip, but I might have made separated it entirely. Design/UI is an incredibly important factor when launching a mobile site. You have to think about how the user will interact with their hands instead of a mouse. And while I agree you shouldn’t try and mirror the web experience, I tend to like when a company’s mobile site shares a similar UI to their web experience. It makes the site feel familiar and there is less time to learn where and how things are categorized.
Again, great post. Thanks for sharing it.
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Michael, thanks for the comment. Glad you liked the post.
I agree that design is a critical element (and why I despise mobile templates) and plan to go into it in more depth in a future post. The nature of this post was to offer a bit of guidance for those just getting started in mobile. UI can get very fragmented once you start to account for touch screen, track balls, touch pads, screen sizes, etc. Might just have to break the design post into a series.
Thanks again.