It goes without saying that developing a site for the mobile screen differs from designing a wired site. Don't plan on transcoding your wired site into mobile because this simply won't give users the best user experience. You can, however, use a subdomain such as mobile.yourdomain.com or xhtml.yourdomain.com, and get a decent site with some updating and coding.
To illustrate the difference in screen size between mobile vs. PC screens, try this: if you have a smartphone, go to http://mobile.aol.com/. Then go to http://www.aol.com/ on your PC from a standard browser to see what I mean.
Here’s the mobile screen:
Keeping in mind the constraints of a tiny screen, below are some tips for designing your mobile site.
Navigation: Put navigation buttons below your most important content to display critical content above the fold, making it visible to users as they surf. Ensure navigation buttons are clearly labeled and well organized. Use text links for main navigation. Important: provide a site map. Place jump links on top, allowing users to immediately access content below the fold. Important inner pages should be within three clicks of the homepage. Be ever mindful of the small screen.
Coding: Use XHTML. Write correct code and avoid unnecessary code to ensure fast download. Use external CSS to decrease load time and ensure correct display across multiple devices with different screen resolutions. Keep file names short and keyword-rich.
Mobile SEO
Follow traditional SEO best practices by using targeted keyword copy, meta tags and links that can accommodate the small screen. Be mindful that queries are shorter (two to three words in an average mobile search query) when selecting keywords.
Avoid pop-ups, frames and Flash. Get links from relevant mobile sites. You can use press releases and blog posts for gaining backlinks. Use social bookmarking and tagging. Go easy on embedded objects (images, scripts, etc.) because they may not download correctly.
Test across devices and device simulators (Google Mobile Proxy and Skweezer). Validate your dot-mobi site with mobile code checkers (W3C Mobile Web Validator and .Mobi Validator).
Tip for local-mobile: Make your telephone number clickable by using the sample syntax below. This immediately connects users to your business when they click on your phone number.
W3C Mobile Web Initiative
Open Mobile Alliance.
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