Mobile phones, PDAs and a variety of other mobile devices are now able to access the internet around the world. The internet is no longer the preserve of people with computers – it is now a mobile phenomenon.

Though they fall short of traditional computers in what they are able to display, they are powerful tools, and will continue to evolve.

Just a quick look at the differences in screen sizes will tell you a lot.

Mobile devices do not display websites in the same way that computers do.

Yes, there are a few devices out there that have the capability of displaying all of the content of a web page, but these devices are very expensive and usually require the presence of a WiFi hotspot.

Displaying abbreviated versions of website pages will continue though until such time as these become more widely used.

When using a PDA to upload a website, its obvious that the display is geared to show text which is easy and fast to download.

So, given these facts, don’t you think that its a good idea to cater to these types of internet users? Of course you do!

When you are designing a website, you need to take into account how people will view the site. Simply by choosing a quality web design program, it becomes possible to create a mobile version of your website, with literally several clicks of the mouse.

Once this new website is created, it can be embedded with a few lines of code that will automatically make this the default site for people using mobile devices.

Instead of dealing with creating a new domain name or setting up mirror versions of the site that are to be used by mobile devices, your website will be able to automatically redirect a visitor to a page that is ideally suited for them.

This may not seem like a big deal, and its true that mobile device users are a relatively small portion of internet users, but when it comes to making your business profitable, it pays (quite literally) to reach the widest possible audience.

Transitioning to this technology can be a real pain, but if you invest in the best web design programs, you’ll find the transition as easy as clicking the mouse a couple times.

The mobile website design is the most promising platform for several consumer driven companies. The number of mobile phone users in the world is more than 2.4 billion and out of that nearly 30% of users surf the internet on a regular basis. This is the primary reason for the increasing popularity of mobile web development in fact, many people predicts that the internet browsing will be leap over the usage of the internet browsing on the desktop. A large number of WAP mobile users browse the internet on mobiles but are often faced with the difficulty of improper display and loading of the website.

A mobile website involves special designing and development procedures. Here are some of the points that you need to bear in mind while making mobile web site.

The most primary requirement that one needs to understand is that the web browsing on the computer and the mobile phone have huge difference. Therefore, you need to design a special website so that your customers can have a better accessibility of your website on the mobile phone. For this websites must be set on W3C.

One of the things to avoid for making good mobile website design is to not use tables in the layout as this will not look good on the mobiles. CSS gives maximum compatibility there the mobile web site made on CSS layout is better.

A mobile website can be made better with the usage of XML or XHTML coding and the character encoding set being UTF-8.

Always take into consideration that the mobile phones are available in different sizes with various sizes of screens as well. Make sure that your design is such that it works on most of the screen sizes.

The maximum size of mobile website page is 20 kilobytes and therefore it is better to fit all the content including pictures in that size. This also makes it a challenge for you to include all the important information about your business and products is presented on top the page itself.

Most of all, take care that you design your website such that it is worth the money that the mobile users are spending for surfing your website.

Building a mobile website can be an added benefit for your customers. A mobile website version can help potential customers find the information they need as quick as possible without cluttering the smaller display on most smart phones and tablets. But how much will it cost and how do you go about it? There are two main ways to go about this – using a CMS plug in or building a dedicated mobile site.

Whichever method you use it is important to keep the following items in mind about the mobile site

1) Do not aim to have all the information from your main site in it.

2) Should have a link to your full featured site as an option.

3) Make users aware they are using the mobile web version.

4) Keep it simple to access important details such as contact details.

5) Make use of handy links for phone numbers & emails etc so users can simply click to contact.

6) Support all major smart phones and tablets.

7) Don’t get too fancy with music, graphics etc.

Excellent usability and functionality are key.

The popularity of smartphones and the ease with which mobile applications can be developed have contributed to a glut of mobile development, mobile apps, and specialized websites that have been optimized for the mobile platform. Any company doing a serious amount of business needs to create a mobile version of its website to capture the mobile customer and this requires attention to a new model of design.

A Few Tips
First of all, the W3C has created a set of accessibility design guidelines for mobile handsets and following those guidelines will put you in good form. Keep in mind that you are dealing with a small amount of screen real estate, so what looks good on a full-size screen may be completely useless on a mobile platform. Tables are probably not going to appear right, you will need to use CSS in your layout, and XML or XHTML will ensure better character encoding. Avoid JavaScript and Flash, as some mobile platforms do not support it. And finally, remember that a mobile page should be no more than 20Kb.

User Interface
Your user interface will need to take the mobile display into account. While in a standard website, you may incorporate simple text boxes for users to enter information, this is more difficult for users of smartphones. Make more use of drop-down boxes, lists and radio buttons for gathering information. Pop-ups should not be used on a mobile platform-there’s just not enough room for them. By the same token, avoid a navigation that opens up a new window if at all possible.

Simple Design
A standard website very seldom translates well to the mobile platform. The mobile version of your website needs to be much simpler than your main website-your menu structure may need to be redone completely, and you may need to eliminate many of the graphics that your main site contains. However, depending on the mobile device being used, the visitor may prefer to see your standard site, so give them the option if their smartphone can accommodate it. Provide an easy and readily-accessible toggle switch so visitors can select the version they prefer.

Make it Easy to Navigate
It’s quite common to include links directly from text, but it’s difficult to click on a single keyword to navigate on a smartphone. Make your navigation links easier to get to with larger buttons.

Not All Smartphones are Created Equal
It’s nearly impossible to create a universal mobile website that can be read on any mobile platform. Mobile browsers don’t support the same properties and HTML elements, and your markup may appear very different depending on the mobile browser or platform. Also, smartphones may have differently sized screens, and some of them (such as the iPhone) switch between horizontal and vertical. This switching makes browsing easy for users, but it means you can’t used a fixed width-go with a percentage instead.

Consider a Professional Mobile Website Designer
Having a mobile version of your website can pay off big in increased traffic and sales, but you need to make that mobile site professional, attractive, and easy to navigate. If you’re not well acquainted with mobile development, consider using the services of a web designer which specializes in mobile platforms.

With the popularity of the iPhone, users generally feel that there’s no longer any use for mobile websites, because you can just get the app for it. But I’ve found that when I’m using another platform (Windows mobile/Android) sometimes there isn’t an app available. In this situation I’ve come to rely on a few websites:

6) Google online suite
Google offers a lot of online services for free on its mobile site. You can access a variety of services such as Docs, News, Mail, Calendar etc. All of these boast a mobile friendly, easy to navigate interface. If you use any of Google’s services on your desktop computer, you’ll be pleased to know everything you could do on your computer, you can also do on your phone.

5) Engadget mobile site
If you regularly read updates from Engadget, this site is for you. Now Engadget has dedicated apps for the iPhone and Android, I suppose you’ll only be relying on this interface if you have a non-smart phone with a web/WAP browser.

4) TVersity
This will only be useful if you have TVersity media server running on your home network. But if you do, you’ll be able to access all of your content as you would on a PC. Of course the format of the video files you upload will determine what devices they’ll be playable on, but you’ll get used to knowing what you can and can’t watch on your phone.

3) Facebook
The interface can be annoying if you’re used to using a Facebook application on your phone, but it’s a lot easier than trying to render the full desktop website on your small phone screen.

2) PayPal
I never used to see the point to having a PayPal website, until I started to regularly use PayPal. Now, I find it incredibly useful as I’m able to check my balance anytime I want. This is useful when I’ve sold an item on eBay (for which there is also a mobile site) because I’m able to see what items I’ve been paid for them and post them, without having to start up my computer just to find a postage address.

1) Messenger
As with all these sites, it’d much easier to use an application, but it’s amazing how well this web-based MSN works, It’s good enough until you can get to a better solution. However the page refreshing to see new messages does get a bit annoying after a while.

The communication revolution was bound to touch the masses and it has done so with the superb penetration of mobile communication. Today the global mobile communication scenario revels in its new found mass user appeal and this is growing everyday! Let alone saturation in the market, people are in no mood to let go off this affordable form of communication in any way! Market experts and critics suggest in unison that this wave will only surge higher. Not surprisingly, with the unification of internet communication with the original mobile communication form, the marriage between the two has resulted in even lower tariffs.

Mobile Websites

When the internet shifted from being a part of the ’still’ PC you had at your home to the mobile on your hand, naturally websites had to be redesigned so the likes of the tiny mobile device. With increase in mobile sales throughout the world, this number only burgeoned. Mobile websites are the next in-thing in the world of technology and effective marketing that aims to reach every person on the earth. This has led to a global surge in demand of mobile websites from the normal websites meant for the browser in your PC. Not surprisingly, designers and web-experts are swiftly working to provide the people with the same.

One great thing about this is – the new websites which are launched have 2 forms – one for the mobile users and other for the PC/laptop users.

Advantages of Mobile Websites

• Instant Marketing: One of the main reasons why websites went mobile is because of the popular public demand; following a vicious circle, marketing and advertisement has also caught up. That is, if you do not have a mobile website for your business today, it will be extremely difficult for you to survive the competition.

• Precise Information: Since not lot of screen space is available for the page to be displayed, it becomes important for the designer to create such a site that utilizes the maximum in the minimum space allotted – that means more responsive search results and information.

• Streaming of Media: As already mentioned, a faster lifestyle translates to lesser time available for personal entertainment. Therefore whatever little time people find in transit, they tend to hook on to the internet for live/recorded audio-visual streams – entertaining and relaxing themselves. That means a whole lot of opportunity for social networking to video sharing.

• Curbing Piracy: Piracy has been one of the major revenue drainers of recent times. Mobile websites are designed such that piracy is minimized to a large extent – a win-win situation for artists and intellectual property owners!

Efforts are on throughout the world to further transform the mobile device more like your multi-functional PC; and you thought power at hand was dream! Globalization and faster life has resulted in a race where people are seldom seen sitting at home. From business deals to tutors, all of it is available on the internet – this (information) is fuelled by the seemingly insatiable need for the same and hence the superb market growth.

Here are 15 tips for a great mobile website:

1. The mobile phones have much smaller screen space and therefore you need to cut down on the amount of information that you can include in the mobile pages.
2. The phones work on much slower bandwidth even if they are on 3G. Your site loads much faster if you have smaller files, few and compact graphics and other elements.
3. Since the capacity of the phones vary widely, use progressive enhancement. This way you will have your site working fine off the most limited browsers but show up really great with the more capable browsers and phones.
4. Attention span on a mobile site is really limited. Include your most salient points – the big hitters -and do not try to tell everything and confuse the reader.
5. You might try this format – powerful headline, 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 still affordable. You can also set up campaigns on AdWords (content display network) with mobiles as the selected target.
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 a mobile – PayPal and phone billing) is picking up very fast. Be ready to take advantage.
11. Make your forms as small as possible. They can’t fill up large forms with the mobile keyboard.
12. Hot tip: 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.
13. Build a SMS list. SMS marketing, like email marketing, is a potential winner. However you need to use it responsibly or else, you will go down the email spammer route.
14. You must include a mobile sitemap and submit it to the search engines. How can we forget the search engines? They can send large number of people to your sites after all.
15. Setup auto-sensing and auto-redirection for mobile browsers on the main URL. Don’t split your branding efforts by advertising 2 different URLs.

The mobile website design is the most promising platform for several consumer driven companies. The number of mobile phone users in the world is more than 2.4 billion and out of that nearly 30% of users surf the internet on a regular basis. This is the primary reason for the increasing popularity of mobile web development in fact, many people predicts that the internet browsing will be leap over the usage of the internet browsing on the desktop. A large number of WAP mobile users browse the internet on mobiles but are often faced with the difficulty of improper display and loading of the website.

A mobile website involves special designing and development procedures. Here are some of the points that you need to bear in mind while making mobile web site.

The most primary requirement that one needs to understand is that the web browsing on the computer and the mobile phone have huge difference. Therefore, you need to design a special website so that your customers can have a better accessibility of your website on the mobile phone. For this websites must be set on W3C.

One of the things to avoid for making good mobile website design is to not use tables in the layout as this will not look good on the mobiles. CSS gives maximum compatibility there the mobile web site made on CSS layout is better.

A mobile website can be made better with the usage of XML or XHTML coding and the character encoding set being UTF-8.

Always take into consideration that the mobile phones are available in different sizes with various sizes of screens as well. Make sure that your design is such that it works on most of the screen sizes.

The maximum size of mobile website page is 20 kilobytes and therefore it is better to fit all the content including pictures in that size. This also makes it a challenge for you to include all the important information about your business and products is presented on top the page itself.

Most of all, take care that you design your website such that it is worth the money that the mobile users are spending for surfing your website.

One of the most happening gadgets of today’s times is a mobile phone. The whole world can be fit in such a palm instrument with internet enabled phones. As the technology in the mobile phones is improving day by day, it has become necessary to add on to the new facilities as well. A large number of people are using internet on their mobile phones, but it has got certain limitations. The mobile phones have much smaller screen and therefore visibility is a big problem. The clarity of the web content also decreases in the mobile phone. Certain pictures and graphics also lose visibility on mobile. This results in the low rank of your website. An effective way of solving this problem is by getting a web design for mobile devices. This is the latest technique which enables you to have your website in a mobile compatible version.

A mobile website is mobile-specific site that has different web design and development. This site is specially meant for viewing on small screen. The making of the mobile website design is same as the normal website but there are certain programming features that need to be taken care of. However, first of all you need to have a different URL of your mobile site. You can choose URL such as yourdummywebsitename.com/mobile or you can also have m.yourdummywebsitename.com or mobile.yourdummywebsitename. It is completely your choice.

Once this is done it is essential to redirect script for mobile phones. This will redirect the viewers of your site automatically to the mobile version of the site if they are accessing your site from mobile phones. Another thing to be careful about is the layout style of your mobile site version. It should be simple and lucid. You can have fonts like Arial, Verdana and Georgia which have better visibility.