When designing a mobile website there are some new considerations to take into account. The structure itself needs to be different since the output on the screen is smaller and not the standard size.
The best practice is to create a sub-domain specifically for the mobile page. You should be able to log into your hosting panel and add a sub-domain. You can name the sub-domain to anything that makes sense like mobile.mydomain.com or m.mydomain.com.
Site design and ease of navigation should be considered for mobile and not for a standard full screen user. Below are some tips for more effective mobile design.
Focus on shorter text, more precise information.
Include contact information at the top of the page.
List image dimensions.
Make sure the site load quickly.
Text should be short enough to elimination zooming or scrolling.
Links and button should be click-able with thumb.
Search is essential for mobile sites for faster access to content.
Link your YouTube account at the bottom which should be clickable for easy access
Include your geotag metatags for geo targeted searches. A great geo tag generator is at http://www.geo-tag.de/generator/en.html
In the Metatags also include the viewport tag which controls layout on mobile devices. <meta name=”viewport“>
Sitemaps for Mobile are different as well
Include the mobile XML header and tag below the page location. <mobile:mobile/>
Googles recommended format is http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34648
Quality testing is important with mobile as not all mobile devices are
Test your site in and XHTML validator like http://validator.w3.org/mobile/
Download mobile emulators
http://www.opera.com/developer/tools/mobile/
http://www.electricplum.com/dlsim.html
If your mobile site looks right and your links are working, images are coming up properly then you are ready to launch your site.
Lars Svekis
Digital Marketing Strategy Specialist
@lsvekis
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