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Include features on your mobile site that will encourage users to share, interact, locate your business & more
Before creating a mobile website just because it’s a new world and you need to, pull back and plan for a mobile website that meets your customer’s needs, fulfills your business objectives, and integrates the features you need now and in the future.
Here are some guidelines to help you plan a successful mobile website:
Plan for user expectations
1In a previous post, we discussed how people use the mobile Web. Mobile device users already know what they want when they get to a mobile website and are more likely to take action once they get there. To plan for this type of user behavior, answer the following questions about potential visitors to your mobile site:
- Why are they most likely coming to your site?
- What information are they most likely seeking?
- What types of actions are they most likely to take?
The answers to these questions can help you prioritize the content on your mobile site. You should highlight the three most important items and make them prevalent on your site. You may only have a few seconds to make a conversion, so call-to-action links or buttons should be one of those priorities.
If possible, reach out to your mailing list or social networking connections and ask what they would like to see on your mobile site.
Plan for business objectives
2Mobile visitors are not going to navigate around your site the way they might on a PC, so have your immediate goals in mind when planning your mobile website. You should also consider the resources you have to put toward your mobile site. Answer the following questions about your goals and resources:
- What are my immediate goals: Sell products, drive traffic to my location, generate leads?
- How much money do I have to invest in the set up and maintenance of a mobile website?
- How much time can I put toward the set up and maintenance of the site?
Answering these questions can help you focus your mobile website content and decide on the most feasible overall solution.
Plan for mobile features
3We learned that mobile device users:
- Access social media sites second only to search sites
- Take action more often than PC users
- Are location motivated
- Like to share information
Using this insight, you want to include features on your mobile website that will encourage mobile device users to share your content, contact your business, access your social media sites, find your business, and so forth. Depending on the results of steps one and two above, consider the following features to include on your mobile website:
- Click-to-call functionality
- Links to your social media accounts
- “Check-in” links for location-based services (like Yelp, Google Places, and Foursquare)
- Google Maps
- Ability to SMS (text message) your business
This is not an exhaustive list, but should give you an idea of the types of features to consider for your mobile website.
These steps can help you flesh out the information you need to move forward with your mobile website strategy.
This excerpt was paraphrased from The Boostrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web by Deltina Hay. This post originally appeared on MobileWebSlinger.com.Deltina Hay, a partner in Socialmedia.biz, is an author and educator who develops online curricula on social media and other Internet marketing topics. She also helps businesses prepare their content for semantic search and big data analysis. Contact her, follow her on Twitter and Google Plus, or leave a comment below.
This is a very comprehensive, strategic look at planning for the mobile web. Excellent work! More and more, companies are going to have to make the decision of whether to have a truly mobile-optimized website or a full site that's somewhat mobile-friendly.
We tend to urge clients to follow the steps you outlined above and treat the mobile web as a separate channel with its own objectives and audience. You hit the nail on the head when you wrote: “Mobile visitors are not going to navigate around your site the way they might on a PC, so have your immediate goals in mind when planning your mobile website.”
Put what mobile visitors need at their fingertips — link to the full, desktop site for anything else.
Read more about our philosophy in “The mobile web rule of thumb” (http://www.brownboots.com/blog/2011/10/the-mobile-web-%E2%80%98rule-of-thumb%E2%80%99/)” target=”_blank”> http://www.brownboots.com/blog/2011/10/the-mobile-web-%E2%80%98rule-of-thumb%E2%80%99/)” target=”_blank”>(http://www.brownboots.com/blog/2011/10/the-mobile-web-%E2%80%98rule-of-thumb%E2%80%99/).
This is an interesting read, Deltina. Planning for a successful mobile website should be a great idea since we are entering the mobile marketing world today. I just feel that everyone would be using their mobile for marketing, social media, businesses etc. Everything is so fast now, even online marketing has been put up in the mobile world, for the reason that, with mobile marketing everything can be navigated easily.