A white paper titled ‘Mobile Takeover: Are You Prepared?’ published by Advisor Websites gives a step-by-step guide on how advisors can make their websites compatible for smartphones.
Smartphones have become ubiquitous and the number of people surfing internet through smartphones is increasing exponentially. To keep pace with the changing behavior of internet users it is imperative for advisors to make their website compatible with smartphones.
In just ten years, the smartphone – and mobile browsing - has ratcheted from oblivion to technological necessity. Performing more than simple calling and texting functions, today’s phones can thank mobile networks for their ability to browse the internet, utilize GPS technology, and act as a mobile entertainment centre. Additionally, tablets, such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet have also latched onto the mobile browsing trend, providing most of the features of a Smartphone (in addition to others) in a more vision friendly format.
Providing increased convenience to business users and personal users alike, mobile browsing makes the riches of the Internet available 24/7 at the touch of a button. It comes to no surprise then that along with the explosion of smartphones and tablets, mobile browsing usage has also reached stratospheric heights – and will likely continue upon that flight path.
Easily convert your existing website
Tools such as Mobify, Wiremode, Onbile, and Moppin Mobilier utilize copy and paste code blocks to easily install onto your website. When users are browsing your website, these tools detect whether a mobile browser is in use, and will then redirect the user to the mobile version, optimizing their browsing experience.
These tools need not be expensive – even Mobify offers a free mobile domain name, although you will have to pay extra to remove the Mobify logo off of your site. These tools will likely appeal to small businesses who do not have the resources required to custom build a dedicated mobile website. The downside is reduced customizability.
SEO: An imperative consideration
According to a June 2011 Mashable blog post, Google’s Eric Schmidt recently noted that mobile search is growing much faster than desktop search. As mobile increasingly becomes a primary gateway to the Internet, it is crucial for companies to incorporate forward-thinking SEO practices into their mobile strategies to ensure their mobile sites are easily detected by search engines and found by consumers (Taylor).
Having a mobile optimized website will help optimize page rank. Usable, fast sites with accurate screen rendering and functioning features will rank higher. In this case, customized mobile sites will offer an advantage over their templated peers. Traditional search engine optimization strategies (keywords, outbound links, relevant content etc.) still persist, but may need to be modified to work in a mobile context where less is more.
Mobile development considerations
Clearly, mobile browsing is a big deal – but what goes into mobile friendly website development?
Strategy
- Defined business objectives: what functions will your website provide? Who will it serve? What are your organization’s needs?
- Define initial key success factors and what you need out of a mobile website
- Decide whether or not to redesign your current website
- How will a mobile site improve our bottom line?
Defined user needs
- How will users use your website?
- Look at Google Analytics to determine what browsers are being used to view your desktop website – you can tailor your website in the design stage to meet the needs of the most utilized mobile browsers and mobile devices.
- What do users need from our site?
Design
- Be concise. Less is more
- Optimize your site for a variety of screen sizes
- Try to build a flexible site that can be re-designed quickly to meet changing needs moving forward. Technology will change.
- Avoid mobile-unfriendly elements such as flash, large files, pop-ups and complex layouts
- Include a link to the desktop site, and make sure the navigation is intuitive
- Is our design meeting our primary business objectives?
Testing?
- Across platforms – ios, Blackberry, Android etc.
- Test features, usability, loading speeds across mobile browsers and devices
- Are key success factors being met?
Continual improvement and re-evaluation
- User needs are reevaluated when major technological changes occur
- Does the site continue to meet our business objectives and customer needs?
Conclusion
With the advent of smartphones and other mobile browsing devices, today’s technology permits users to do much of what they could previously do on a desktop computer anywhere. With its exponential potential, mobile browsing technology is sure to be a societal fixture, and your organization must make sure that it isn’t losing ground. By following best practices including a comprehensive needs analysis and effective design, your organization’s content will be accessible and informative to clients, partners, or other individuals interested in your website.
Click here to download the whitepaper.
