Mobile Web Access

Using Mobile access to bring more visitors to your site

Use the approach in this article to bring more traffic to your site, through Mobile web access:

1. Understand scale of web usage - using mobiles to access the web has stepped up sharply over the past year - according to Scoot Uk, web traffic from mobile devices increased by over 4000% in the last 18 months. Apple holds by far the greatest share of this - their devices now handle more than 70% of mobile traffic on the web. Even a year ago nearly 70% of i–phone users visited web sites via their phone on a daily basis.

2. Be aware of most popular uses - the most popular use of mobiles on the web is for email (59% of users); news headlines (46%) and social networking (41%)

3. Know the web brands – the most popular web brands were Google (55%); Facebook (42%); BBC News (40%); E-bay (30%) and YouTube (77%)



4. Know the trend - Gartner reported in May that, worldwide, smart-phone sales increased by 85% year-on-year, so web usage trend seems likely to continue growing.

Clearly website owners should consider carefully the extent of the need to tailor their sites to suit mobile phone visitors, and how best to do this.

5. Your Approach – assess the degree of mobile relevance for your sites, especially if it is a potentially high usage sites, e.g. information only sites, forums, social networking, sites addressing young user market.



Lower priority sites e.g within certain industrial/commercial sectors should be assessed also, with typically a different technical solution being offered. Optimal domain usage, i.e. whether .mobi is best option, or whether non mobile domains will be adequate, are considered also.

6. Choose the best technical solutions - the optimal technical solution should be considered, e.g. for simple sites– the existing web site will often suffice for majority of mobile phones, with minimal content change needed, and .mobi use not needed.



For complex sites, e.g. for mobile-relevant sites with high content levels, (e.g. offering a wide range of products) a .mobi domain may be appropriate; the text content may need simplification; use of the flash/java script content of existing site may need removing and image formats may need changing.

Always consider the optimal levels of search spend, once the site is up, to achieve the necessary level of visibility for the site.



7. Get the right cost level- the cost of specifying, and developing fully mobile-friendly sites depends on the profile of individual sites. In some instances an effective solution can be delivered for minimal additional cost, as all requirements can be incorporated within the basic site specification.

In other cases it may be necessary to radically tailor the site content for mobile visitors - effectively a separate, mobile - orientated site is needed although it can automatically sense the mobile device and serve up a different set of pages suitable to them.

Under all options you should ensure the cost reflects the work needed, with maximum re-use of existing content.