Optimizing your Website for Smartphones and Tablet PCs

With 50% of those living in the US (and about 25% of the global population) predicted to have a smartphone in less than two years, it should come as a surprise that so many marketers, including 79% of Google's largest online customers, do not have a mobile-friendly website. That's not according to us but according to Marteena Agrapakis from Google.

We don't have only chapters and verses but entire poems which we can cite from the likes of ComScore, Forester and Infonetics Research to support this position. However, rather than bore you with statistics, pie charts and graphs, we believe that your time is better spent gaining a few insights on how you can set the matter right in a manner that is not only affordable but also effective.

Mobile Website versus a Mobile-friendly Website

If you access your website on a handheld device and your website has only a single look-and-feel, it is a mobile website. However, if your website happens to be configured in such a way that the moment it is accessed by either a smartphone or a tablet PC, it responds with a slightly different version of your original website, it is a mobile-friendly website. The best way to fathom this first ground rule in mobile web interface technology is to run a quick comparison between the two versions - Facebook.com and M.Facebook.com for instance, the mobile version of the website which runs on a sub-domain. Compare the two and you will get our drift. Once you conduct this self-test you won’t lose much time to conclude that a mobile-friendly website is what you really need to capture the sizeable traffic you are currently denying yourself.

Where to get a Mobile-friendly Website

Transforming your existing Internet property into one that is also mobile-accessible isn’t as complicated a value proposition as you might think. Many if not most web design and web development companies offer this service. The costs have also come down significantly because of an increase in the number of service providers. Your best bet is to try and reconnect with your original web design firm and ask them to upgrade your website into a dual version site. Ask for references and access their portfolio on your handset first before you sign the dotted line.

The mobile version of your website can be easily set up to spring into action automatically the moment it is accessed on a smartphone or a tablet PC. Remember however that not everything that works on your website might work on a handheld device. A professional web developer or designer will activate only those features and elements on your existing website while reconfiguring it on a mobile platform that are actually suited to the platform. The ultimate aim is to provide your customers with a rich user experience and to avoid the pitfalls of a dysfunctional mobile website which abound on the web today.

Alternative Strategy for developing a Mobile-friendly Website

In the event that you can’t afford retooling and reconfiguration costs, there are a few tools that will help you develop a fairly decent mobile version of your website. They include:

• 1. Wire Node
• 2. Mippin
• 3. MoFuse
• 4. Mobify Me

If you don't like the ones we have suggested above, there is always Google Mobile Optimizer, a free tool from Google which seems to work quite well for most websites, especially the static ones.

The fact that millions of users are accessing the Internet on mobile platforms is neither a secret nor a happenstance. Simply look around and you will notice hundreds of fingers gently sliding up and down touch surfaces. Optimizing your website for the mobile means more traffic, more business and increased ROI. The figures may vary from one industry to another and from one corner of the world to another. However, one thing is certain your business will grow and your cash registers will jingle once you claim your place in the explosive world of the mobile Internet.