MOBILE WEB SITE DESIGN
Having a mobile version of your website is extremely important to the success of your web strategy. When you arrive at a site that using a mobile device and the desktop version is rendered, the visible text is very small and difficult to read unless you expand and zoom, which can cause issues with left/right/up/down scrolling around the page sections to view it all. Most users will return to the search results and locate a different site that they can more easily read. This can cost customers. Folks using mobile devices generally do not have time or patience to engage with something that is less than easy to use. A well optimized mobile website will retain and engage more visitors.
MOBILE SITE TYPES
There are two basic types of mobile websites. A standalone site is completely seperate from the desktop verision of the site and has it's own sub-domain. It is managed just like you have two distinct websites, because in reality, you do. One is for the mobile and one for the desktop verion of the site. They may be similar, but the mobile site is specifically designed to read well on the smaller devices. The other type, and the one that the web design community has been moving toward is called responsive design. Responsive design has code in the server that detects what kind of device the visitor is using, then serves a version that looks best on the given device. Each have thier pros and cons, but overall, the responsive design approach is clearly the better choice. Done correctly, it is much less work than it's counterpart. When any changes are made to design, those changes instantly apply to both the desktop and mobile websites. With standalone, you would need to make changes to both sites.
ELEMENTS CRITICAL TO A MOBILE WEBSITE
> Very Easy to Read > Has a Fast Page Load Speed > Simple, Clear Navigation > A CALL NOW Button That will Auto-Dial Users Phone to Your Number > Paired Down Content from Your Desktop Site (not in all cases)
