Millions of people use mobile devices to get online everyday. A recent report shows that mobile search have grown by 400% since 2010. Researchers predict that by 2013, more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online and there will be one mobile device for every person on the earth by 2015. These are not something strange, and I know, you are not surprised with these data. Everyday more and more people are using their phones to search something or compare various products on the move. So, optimization of websites for such devices can’t be ignored anymore.
Google has taken an initiative to help web masters better understand the need of optimization and best practices for that. The GoMo website provides tools and resources to make websites more mobile-friendly. Here I have summarized few points for improving this area. Consider getting the GoMo best practices guide [PDF] from Google for better illustration.
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Don’t put unnecessary contents that are not a part of the page user is looking. It will help your site to load faster.
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Strictly avoid horizontal scrolling as no one likes to do it in mobile browser.
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Design button and other navigation link in a way that screen-touch users are comfortable with.
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Choose appropriate colors for foreground and background to give good contrast.
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Avoid using Flash rich contents. Many devices does not support this. HTML5 is a better alternative for designing animated contents.
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Reduce number of inputs as much as you can. Minimise number of redirects and navigation.
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Local searches can promote your business. Consider including your contact address on page visitor can see easily.
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Some latest browsers support advance scripts to run for better user-end experience. Try them wherever applicable.
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Automatically redirect visitors to mobile-friendly site when browsed from a mobile device. This can be implemented with few lines of redirect code.
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Keep collecting feedback from your visitors and make testing and optimization an ongoing process.
Using the GoMo tool you can see, how your site looks on a mobile device get recommendations for doing it much better.