Important Distinctions between desktop and mobile websites:

The internet experience on a desktop or mobile phone are two different animals entirely.  As you can see from the image on the left, you can access your mobile apps from anywhere.  Bottom line: You need two websites.  Look at your website on a mobile phone.  How well does it translate?  If it looks good on a mobile phone and is easy to navigate then you probably need a new website for your desktop users.  What are the differences?

With mobile websites less is more:  Complex design, flash, and forms are great for your website but horrible for the mobile user.  You need to re-evaluate and produce a different website for mobile traffic from the ground up.  Video translates very well to mobile sites so consider producing some video content that helps you convey your message.

Mobile websites need big buttons and visible text.  Minimize or eliminate scrolling left to right.  Avoid the online software converters that will turn your existing website into a mobile site.  I’ve looked at them all and have yet to find one that isn’t buggy.  (If you know of one please leave a comment below)  Some produce a decent home page but when you try to navigate the experience becomes inconvenient…..which defeats the purpose of using a mobile device to navigate a website altogether.

Simplify your “about us” statement and make it very easy for your users to contact you and find you.  Here is a link to my desktop website.  Here is a link to view my mobile site on your desktop.  Scan this code to see my mobile website on your phone:
Notice the differences?  The mobile site doesn’t look good on your desktop but it is very functional on a mobile device.  There is just a little statement, several ways to contact us, a little more text about our services and some pricing examples.  Anything more would be overkill for a mobile site.  The main website doesn’t translate well to the mobile experience.  To make the text readable you have to zoom in so much that it’s like trying to look at a monitor through a straw…..not easy.

So you can see, the mobile and desktop website serve two very different functions.  The mobile website is to get pertinent information to your prospects/customers quickly and easily.  You can offer coupons, bring them into your social networks and provide on the fly contact and location info.  That’s how your mobile website translates into money.  It’s there in the place where people are looking and optimized for the device they are using.  It helps oil the wheels of the other marketing you use including print ads, business cards, direct mail and social media.  Your mobile website will be producing new leads and prospects so that you can convert them to customers, so even if your desktop site is all about a shopping cart and eCommerce it’s not going to be useful when someone finds it on their smartphone.

If you are worried that this all sounds expensive, time consuming or confusing, don’t be, because I have a shameless plug and offer:  I will build you a free mobile website, (no hosting fees) teach you how to update it, create track-able QR codes for your printed materials and give you some html code to put on your main site that will redirect anyone who hits your main site with a smartphone browser to your new mobile site.  All you need to do is like us on facebook and make a purchase from our website.  I’ll take care of the rest.  Click below to contact me.

by Matt Fortenbery
CEO Total Printing Solution