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These days, no one hits the yellow pages to find a restaurant or a gym or even a plumber. Instead, search engines like Google and Yahoo have long since taken the place of that massive book.
While lots of companies know they must have good search engine placement to capture the attention of customers, few have even begun to consider the fact that many will be searching for them with their smartphones, which brings in an entirely different set of issues.
Today, instant gratification is king, and with people using their smartphones to access your site, making a few changes is an absolute must. If you’ve ever spent several minutes waiting on a site to load on your phone, you know that sticking with the same old site for mobile users just isn’t an option. Here are just a few ways to make certain that you’re mobile friendly.
One of the most essential parts of your mobile plan has to be the site itself. Mobile sites don’t have quite as many images, and they often include more plain text and fewer links. Essentially, they get to the meat of what you need to tell visitors faster. People visit mobile sites for the basics, so mobile site design has to be very slim.
Most studies have shown that the three top most visited pages on mobile sites are the About Us page, the Location page, and the Contact Us page. No, of course you don’t want to limit your content to those pages, but you do need to make certain that the content on those sites is ready to go for your visitors.
Want to see an example of a great mobile site? Visit Farin Innovations online now from your smartphone. Our sister company emobilemenus.com helps us with design and development.
Your mobile site is certainly going to help folks recognize you from their smartphones, but Google Places and Yahoo! Local also allow companies like yours to create local listings that can help you showcase your stuff to users who are on the go. Here you can list essential features like your company name, the services or products you offer, as well as the hours you’re open, your phone number, and even your location. Google or Yahoo will display that info to users, and Google will even map it for users, further helping your company get recognized faster. Other social networks and apps have listings, too, so do a little searching as you work to submit your company to the right directories.
Whether you have a mobile site or a standard site, optimization is key both in terms of the code behind your pages and your site’s speed. Slow loading can be a real issue, especially with smartphone users, and poor coding can keep your site from being recognized by the search engines. Here are a couple of quick things you can do to speed things up and optimize your site from an overall level:
Images need to be as small as possible. Don’t simply load the image right from your camera.
Make certain your contact information is almost everywhere so smartphone users can click on it and figure out where you are or call you instantly.
Drop the Flash. Flash doesn’t work well with mobile devices, so get rid of it.
Hosting is an important factor too. If you go with the cheapest possible plan, the slower your site will be to load. While good hosting can be expensive, as much as $300 a month, it’s a must if you’re going to get the right traffic and the right load times You may want to look into good semi-dedicated hosting plans to get the best for your money.
A mobile friendly company is going to take some serious time and effort, and the right professional to help may be the best possible investment you could make.
Farin Innovations has been working to make the best mobile friendly sites for the last several years. From website design services to website development, social media, and site hosting, we offer more to companies just like you. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help.