Hi Folks,
As cell phones are going more sophisticated day by day with added features such as Wi-Fi connectivity, GPRS and latest on offer- 3G, people have started surfing internet on their wireless devices as well. So it becomes crucial that a
website works well in case it is viewed on a wireless device. In case the display media is a cell phone, the screen is only 2 or 3 inches, downloads can be slow, and visitors tend to be more result oriented. Here are some tips to optimize a site for mobile display:
1) Key performance marketing goals should be no more than 1-3 clicks away from the homepage. Mobile web users are often impatient and tend to get to results as fast as they can.
2) Place core content at the top of the first page and follow with navigation. In contrast to desktop web design where we often place the same navigation bar on every web page, a site optimized for mobile should have navigation bar only on the first page. Since the viewing area on a cell phone is small, mobile users should see the content changing when they surf ahead of the home page.
3) Keep the navigation very simple using large text links. Provide fewer navigation options to pages that have less information. Use images only when needed in order to decrease the site loading time as mobile networks dont work at speeds comparable to wired networks.
4) Use sitemaps and robots.txt so that spiders can quickly index your mobile site.
5) Use keyword rich URL’s for the web pages.
6) Do not use Flash, pop ups, i-frames, java-script or frames. Some of these technologies block mobile spiders and none can be expected to render well on mobile platforms at this time.
7) Optimize your site for 1-2 word keyphrases. Mobile users tend to search for smaller phrases with fewer words.
8) Be sure phone numbers are clickable. Keep in mind while mobile handsets usually render phone numbers clickable, the following syntax helps to ensure this: < href=tel:2503851190?>250-385-1190</a>. The conversion goal for mobile applications is often a visitor calling a phone number. Your clickable phone number and main website address should be in the footer of each mobile page.
Content ideas for the above post borrowed from below mentioned url with related inputs added.
http://www.searchengineguide.com/ross-dunn/mobile-search-s-1.php
Get a glimpse of Google mobile website here:
http://www.google.com/xhtml
Happy Surfing!




2 comments
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June 20, 2009 at 1:28 pm
saiserwilcox
I hope you don’t mind a little plug but I work for a company – 2ergo – that makes this sort of thing really easy. We have an web-based tool that allows you to build mobile sites easily. If you don’t mind ads, it’s a free tool.
https://sitebuilder.2ergo.com/
June 30, 2009 at 11:22 am
Prashant
Hi,
Nice blog and nice article
Mobile Site Optimization