People are increasingly using their smart phones, and other small-screen devices to browse your website. Knowing how to optimize your site for these guests can be an important way to please your customers and provide an edge over your competition. Someone using a small-screen device with a slow internet connection needs a small, clean, fast-loading site. Good mobile sites have fewer graphics, and larger buttons to cater to the limitations of the small screen.
There are several different ways to provide a mobile-optimized experience for your site.
- Mobile Stylesheets
Modern websites are designed via CSS stylesheets, and with a properly structured site that’s not very complex(your typical content/advertising sites, blogs, etc.) can have an additional stylesheet attached that optimizes your site’s layout and design for small screen devices.
- Mobile “Mirrored” Site
More complex sites, have advanced features like live chat, polls, or forums that may not be needed or advisable to have on a mobile site. In cases like this it’s better to have a separate mobile website that has the same information(pulling from the same database typically). These sub-sites can selectively show the content that is relevant to mobile users.
- 3.) Separate Mobile Site
Occasionally a mobile site has it’s own purpose and function unique from the main site. This could be a competition, an event registration, or a location based site. In these cases, of course it’s simpler to just create a separate site.
Whichever option fits your needs, let’s keep your website in the hands of your customers!