Tips for making a mobile version of your website

Convinced you need a mobile site? We highlighted 3 reasons a few weeks ago. Not sure where to start? Here are 6 helpful tips for creating a mobile version of your site.

Keep your design simple

Your mobile site homepage should only contain the most necessary information. This would include what services you offer, your hours of operation, and how to contact you or make an appointment. Don’t overfill the page – you can add more details with time and a more complex navigation system. For those who want more information instantaneously, keep a link to the desktop version of your site easy to find. Keeping enough white space on the mobile homepage will make your site simple, organized and easy to use.

Keep load times down

Your mobile website should load fast – we’re talking in less than 5 seconds. People access sites on mobile phones because they are too busy to sit down at the computer – if they have to wait for your site to load chances are they will close it out and look for another company to handle their carpet cleaning and disaster restoration needs. You can do this by avoiding heavy graphics, not using anything Flash-based (most smartphone browsers don’t support it), and by making sure your developer only loads the minimum set of JavaScript and CSS files, or HTML5.

Automatically redirect mobile users

All the trouble of setting up a mobile website will be for naught if you forget to redirect mobile visitors automatically. You can do this by having your webmaster create a subdomain of your website, which will serve as your mobile site. Or you can choose to use a responsive theme that works on computers and mobile devices alike.

Keep all mobile devices in mind

Your mobile website should be able to work flawlessly on a variety of mobile platforms and operating systems. Just because something works on the iPhone doesn’t mean it will work with an Android phone or a Blackberry. Program your site, or ask your programmer, to install a feature that detects what type of device is being used and presents a compatible version of the site.

Make things touch-friendly

In case you missed it, touch is the new hot thing. Make your mobile website touch-friendly by keeping typing to a minimum. Use drop-down menus, check boxes and pre-populated fields so users can easily navigate and input data with the touch of a button.

Track your visitors

You follow your website’s traffic using Google Analytics, so why wouldn’t you follow your mobile website’s traffic as well? (You DO follow your main website’s traffic, RIGHT?) You can track mobile traffic by creating a separate profile for your mobile website in your analytics system.

Your mobile website can be a powerful tool for putting you in touch with customers who are desperately searching for your services. Don’t miss out on this type of traffic because you don’t have a mobile site.

Your SFS Team

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