September 5, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting and domain name provider MyDomain (http://www.mydomain.com) is offering tips on creating a successful .Mobi mobile website. The tips address “key challenges companies need to consider when optimizing a website”.
MyDomain suggests many companies fall into a trap of believing a .Mobi website is merely going to be a version of their standard website made available through a smaller screen. MyDomain, who bills itself as “one of the first .mobi accredited website developers” suggests the multitudes of companies “rushing to put their content on mobile sites that can be accessed on the go from the explosion handheld devices” are actually inhibiting customer use and revenues by not adapting web content for the mobile interface.
MyDomain’s Senior Marketing Manager, Chris Campbell, has created a list of the top challenges when creating a mobile version of a website. They are:
1. Trying to fit all of the content from your regular website into the mobile version of the site.
“This is a common issue. Website owners don’t see how they can fit all of their content into a small mobile browser – and the answer is that they shouldn’t,” suggests Campbell. “Mobile Web users aren’t looking for pages full of content, they are looking for quickly accessed and easily digestible pieces of information that are useful to them on the go.”
2. Determining what information is important to the mobile Web surfer.
“A person surfing the mobile web is usually interested in a company’s most basic information,” adds Campbell. “They want contact information, address, directions and a summary of the services they provide,” says Campbell. “For instance, on the mobile version of a restaurant’s website, it doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of content on the historical significance of the building that the restaurant is located in. Users on the go want to see a phone number, address, link to a map, and a menu – that’s it.”
3. Understanding how website navigation is different on a mobile device and the importance of keeping it simple.
“Fancy navigation on a mobile website is not only a bad idea,” says Campbell, “it actually can inhibit use. Many times, the best use of a homepage on a mobile site is a simple list of links. Visitors to a mobile site are looking for specific information and hoping to find it quickly and easily.”
4. Understanding what is involved in taking credit card orders over a mobile Web site
”Taking e-commerce credit card orders on a phone is not a problem, but it is important to understand that a separate mobile payment processor is necessary.”
5. When and when not to add graphics and images.
“The dimensional size of images is important – but it is even more key to ensure that all images are optimized so that they have a very small file size,” explains Campbell. “This is critical to making your website one that will download and display quickly. It will also make sure that your visitor doesn’t end up with a huge phone bill because they transferred too much data trying to download your webpage. If this happens, that visitor will certainly not come back to your mobile site.”
6. Understanding mobile website link coding and how it is different from a regular website – i.e. “hot keys”.
“Hot Key” link coding is essential technology to use,” stresses Campbell. This makes navigation much easier for the web surfer and improves the odds that they will return to the site since getting around is intuitive and simple to handle. Phone numbers can be coded so that when clicked, they automatically have the cell phone dial that number. Since many mobile site visitors are looking for contact information, the phone number link will most likely be the most used feature on the site.”
7. Knowing why it's extremely important that all website code is perfect.
“Mobile website browsers are not as forgiving as Internet Explorer or Firefox,” Campbell notes. “It is extremely important that the code for a mobile website be exactly perfect so that it is able to resolve to the mobile browser without errors.”
8. How to know when you've got it right - ready.mobi.
There are many tools available to determine how ready your current site is for mobile use and also to determine if a site you are working on is going to work correctly. www.ready.mobi is one example of this. MyDomain has its own branded version of this tool, available at http://mydomain.ready.mobi/.
9. Perceived difficulty understanding and managing the code and content on a mobile site.
There’s nothing fancy or new about managing the code and content on a mobile Web site. It works exactly the same way that a regular site does. The difference is only that it needs to be simple, optimized for small file sizes, and coded perfectly – with no errors. Obviously, it also needs to be laid out so that all of the content fits into a small mobile devices window.
10. Determining the proper functionality to include on a mobile site.
Campbell says, “Many of the tools and items that are found on regular websites will work perfectly on a mobile site. Forums, blogs, polls and forms, for instance, work great on a mobile site. However, flash video, dropdown navigation windows, and heavy file sizes will not. It is important to keep a mobile site simple and easy to use. While flashy aspects can make a regular website artistic and fun, it will make your mobile website difficult to download and can make the user experience frustrating.”
Established in 1998, MyDomain has “extensive experience building .mobi compliant sites for businesses of all sizes”, and is one of the few companies to employ .mobi certified developers. Purchased by Dotster Inc in 2002, MyDomain.com distinguishes itself with tiered domain registration pricing, offering some of the lowest registration pricing in the industry as well as a complete array of Internet solutions including custom website design, Internet marketing and shared and VPS hosting.
