Websites in their traditional format, when accessed via a mobile phone or a smart phone appear to be all jumbled up or are difficult to navigate. Is your website compatible for mobile devices?

Remember, your mobile website must be:

• Easy for your customers to reach you via a mobile phone or tablet
• Should not require any inconvenient downloads by your customers
• Be easily accessible on any mobile browser
• Be easy to update and manage

Best practices for mobile website design:

• Route mobile users to a dedicated ‘mobile’ version of your website.

• Using standard mobile mark-ups (like XHTML Basic and XHTML Mobile Profile) will ensure that a wide array of mobile devices can render your page as you intend it to be seen.

• Each mobile browser shows markedly different characteristics. Test your mobile website on a range of browsers and devices.

• Keep page sizes small; less than 10KB if possible.  Mobile pages typically take longer to load due to slower network speeds, so minimize use of images where possible.

• Make sure that all pages are linked to other pages. It’s still a little complex to browse with a mobile phone, so don’t make it harder by forcing users to hit the back button to escape dead ends.

• Use a single column layout to minimize left/right navigation, which is difficult on a phone.

• It is important that users should be able to see maximum page content once the page has loaded, without scrolling.

• Don’t cause pop-ups or other windows to appear, and don’t change the current window without informing the user.

• With video and audio, beware of Flash and other closed formats that aren’t compatible on some devices. Don’t download video/audio files until requested and NEVER use auto-play.