#12 tips for successful mobile website design

You must have noticed that mobile phones have become iconic with the proliferation of Android, iPhones, and Blackberries. They have greatly increased in number now and the question on everybody’s mind is how to tap this vast potential market. The answer is a mobile website. This article looks at the essential things that you need to remember to design a good mobile website.

Here are 12 tips for a great mobile website:

1. Mobile phones have a smaller screen space and hence you need to cut down on the amount of data that you can include in the mobile pages.

2. Mobile phones work on a much slower bandwidth (even if they are on 3G). Your site would load faster if your files are smaller, and have fewer graphics and other elements.

3. As the capacity of mobiles varies widely, using progressive enhancement is advisable. This way your website will work alright with the most limited browsers but would show great performance with more capable ones.

4. Attention span on a mobile site is very limited. Include your most salient points - the ones that count -and do not try to tell everything and confuse the reader.

5. Try this format – a powerful headline, followed by a paragraph of introduction text and a few bullet points followed by a call to action.

6. New page loads are taxing on the bandwidth, too much information on a single page is daunting. You have to strike a fine balance.

7. Advertise on the mobile networks. The clicks are affordable still. You can also set up campaigns on AdWords with the selected target as mobiles.

8. Always send the clicks to a mobile version of the landing page. Don't drop the ball by sending the clicks to a desktop landing page which won't show up clearly on the small screens.

9. Include a link to your main site so that they can see the whole story, if they are not happy with the limited information on the mobile site.

10. Mobile commerce (pay from mobile - PayPal and phone billing) is picking up quite fast. You must be ready latch on to take advantage.

11. Make your forms as small as possible. Users cannot fill up large forms with the mobile keyboard.

12. Include a touch-to-call or click-to-call button. They are working off a mobile phone after all and calling someone is the most natural thing to do.