5 Mobile Site Best Practices
Mobile, mobile, mobile... That’s all I hear and it’s not a surprise. Our new best friend has changed the way we navigate and browse content on the Internet and therefore, it has also changed our Online Strategy. That also means that I’ve had to become (or try to) an expert on the topic!
However, although we all talk about Mobile, how many companies are “Mobile ready”? How many marketers are ready to talk about Mobile?
One of the MUST have, if you really want to maximize the mobile opportunity and plan a decent strategy, is a mobile-friendly site. And when I say mobile-friendly, I mean it. I’ve seen too many “almost mobile-friendly” sites. If you’re investing your money in the creation of a mobile site, please, take the time to learn what a mobile-friendly site means and what are the areas you need to evaluate. In order to help you with that, here is my list of Top 5 Best Practices:
-Navigation must be simple and quick: who likes to be confused and/or waste time?
- Use a clear hierarchy menu that facilitates navigation through the site and avoids rollovers and scrolling.
- If the site is massive, include a search box.
- Never forget the back and home buttons.
- Reduce images or large blocks of text
- For all sizes: not everyone has pianist fingers. Don’t create minuscule buttons that are too close to each other.
- It will help you to avoid accidental clicks.
- Visit your mobile site will be an enjoyable experience for everyone.
- Make it work across...everything!
- Forget about Flash: it doesn't really work on many devices.
- Make it adaptable for vertical and horizontal orientations.
- Go local: how many times have you used your phone to search for local info?
- Include all your local info: address, store locator, phone numbers, maps etc. and make it visible on the homepage.
-Test, analyze, track and improve: mobile is evolving and so you do.
- Before lunching the new site or improvements for the existing one, test everything! Run a pilot for a few days and have a few users/friends/coworkers trying it and sending you feedback.
- Use an analytics tool (like Google Analytics ) to understand how people use your site.
- Never stop improving your site.
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