Mobile Web Development

It cannot be denied that almost everything nowadays is mobile. Whereas before laptops were not common, today these gadgets are abundant and actually cost lower than they used to cost before. Cellular phones were not the trend in the past, but nowadays almost everyone has a cellphone.

Recognizing these, cellular companies and website programmers have launched what is now called the Wireless Application Protocol. Abbreviated as WAP, it is the international standard for Internet access using a mobile phone or from a personal digital assistant. The mobile application for WAP is very similar to a web browser in computers (Mozilla Firefox, Opera, atc.) but with some features removed to comply with mobile phone standards.

With WAP, mobile users can access services provided by various websites from their cellphones. They can send email, browse through the latest news reports in major news websites, track news about their favorite sport events and even download music files to their phones. This is very useful for businessmen, who are always on the go and might sometimes find carrying a laptop around as tiresome.

Despite its similarity to the Hypertext Markup Language used to design websites, WAP sites are created using the Wireless Markup Language. Similar to HTML, WML provides web interface features such as navigation, data input forms, hyperlinks, text and images.

Technical Aspects

Easy To Read

If you were to view a standard website on a mobile you would need to scroll up and down and left to right, and in most cases the text will be too small to even read. And zooming in and out makes it difficult if not impossible to follow what you are looking at and hardly makes for a good customer experience does it.

Mobile websites however are specifically designed so the information is displayed in an easy to display format so your customers can easily view your site using their Smartphone.

Mobile Redirect

When you add a mobile website to your marketing arsenal, a simple piece of coding behind the scenes will direct the visitor to the website appropriate to the platform that they are visiting from.

This coding will automatically pick up whether the user is on a mobile device or on a traditional connection and direct them accordingly to either your mobile optimised website or your full website. This technology provides for a seamless professional experience for your customers.

Nowadays you can have a domain extension a.mobi just for your mobile website. So your main website may be justanexample.com and your mobile optimised website maybe justanexamlpe.mobi

Usability and Future Proofing Your Mobilised Website

It is essential to ensure that your mobile website works with all types of smart phones and internet browsers. There is a danger if you are trying to do the website yourself that this becomes impossible to manage. By using a professional company they can make sure your content is optimized in a way to cover you now and in the future. Most will offer a monthly service to cover all updates.

Useful Features

Click to Dial is just one quick example of a useful feature of a mobile website. As the name suggests, your customer can ring you straight from their mobile phone. Only recently I was in the car with a business partner and we decided we wanted a coffee. We put the name of my favourite brand of coffee shops into our mobile device and the local searches immediately presented back the details including map of the nearest coffee shop.

Conclusions

Local searches are growing at a phenomenal rate and your business must have the technology to benefit. Mobile website design is now essential as you can't rely on a standard website as your customers will not stay on your website if it is not easy to read. The whole purpose of a mobile optimised website is to provide your customers with an excellent user experience.

A mobile website is a must have to ensure your customers can find you instead of your competition. So get your business mobilised.

Overall, companies need to assess the trends of their consumers and decide whether a mobile site will better cater to clients. Ask anyone who has navigated both a mobile and regular website from their phone which is better. The full website can be a headache, especially if there is a mobile site to browse. Will your clients be searching you from a mobile device, and if so, who is easier to browse?