By Justin Delos Reyes – Web Success Team
According to Digital Buzz Blog, over 70% of the world’s population has a mobile phone – which suggests that mobile web browsing is becoming the norm for consumers around the globe.
Have you created a mobile website that can accomplish the same goals as your traditional website? If not, or if your current mobile website isn’t helping you achieve web success, your mobile marketing strategy might need some re-tweaking. Read on to discover how to create an effective mobile website.
Continue reading “Guidelines for Creating an Effective Mobile Website” »
April 20, 2010 at 2:52 pm
By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson
Transitioning your desktop site onto a mobile device is one of the most important moves companies are now implementing. Embracing mobile is one of the fastest growing segments in the web world, and if done correctly, could be extremely profitable for your company. However, be advised that the mobile system is so diverse with its various browsers, screen sizes and connections — that your site needs to be compatible for mobile. To master this technology shift, here are a few tips to keep in mind when making your site mobile friendly:
The Importance of WYSIWYG
When styling your site to view on mobile phones, it is very important to stick to relative units like percentages and ems. They are considered the “best” units for sizing fonts and layouts in CSS. There’s no way to foresee what mobile devices people are going to be using, and these units are very convenient because they adapt to the users mobile screen and are great for making a long-lasting, quality design on every phone. It’s also crucial to make sure the visual layout on your desktop site matches with the one on your mobile site. This will make your brand consistent, stronger and reassure mobile visitors that they’re looking at the same company. Finally, you want to stick to minimal page transitions and scrolling. This will ensure that shorter time is spent in looking at the content.
Downsizing for Bigger Results
Don’t try and squeeze big, elaborate desktop-sized images onto 2-inch screens. Make sure to resize the images before transferring them over to your mobile site. Two great strategies to use are to resize the images on the web server so that they take up 90% less time to load AND to make sure you link the optimized image to the original size just in case visitors want more information on the specific image.
Rethink Links
On desktops, websites have the freedom of space and size to view their numerous pages and links. But on mobile devices, these options will not work. Remember, visitors have short attention spans, and in order to decrease the bounce rate, you need to decrease the number of pages and navigable links. When making a site “mobile friendly” try to focus on a few key areas of the web site that really accentuate the company and its business. Make sure to include (and prioritize) mobile-specific items. For example, including a “Contact Us” link is necessary because countless users will visit your mobile site looking for your phone number, email and office address. Or have a search bar so visitors can easily access the information they require.
Limitations of Mobile
Because the technology is fairly new and still in transition, it is important to note that some mobile devices do not support the downloading of content in certain formats. So what may appear as the “full site” on an iPhone, may appear as a list of links on a Blackberry. Browser compatibility is still one of the main issues limiting mobile search viewability. In developing the mobile site, it is key to have it tested on multiple browsers and mobile devices to ensure optimum performance.
Measuring your mobile audience is extremely important and vital to your online success. By being informed on what devices your audience and potential customers mostly use will affect your mobile design decisions. For example, if your mobile audience is 90% Blackberry and iPhone, you shouldn’t worry too much about Android compatibility.
Mobile Is Calling You!
Mobile devices are quickly becoming an essential part of the web marketing mix, with businesses making the virtual leap to mobile devices. And studies show that this mobile phenomena is a fast growing segment. People are on the go and they need the flexibility of mobile access. Keeping up with technology trends and implementing mobile search will enhance your business prospects and keep you on the cutting edge. Assume your competition is already using mobile — so should you!
Grow Your Business Online: These tips are meant to be used as a guideline to improve traffic to your site, increase your conversion rates, help turn visitors into buyers, and keep you ahead of the competition. Turning to a web marketer can ultimately save you time and money and increase your success online. The Web Success Team has many proven marketing strategies and techniques that can be viewed at http://www.websuccessteam.com. The Team would be happy to discuss your web marketing needs with a complimentary consultation and web marketing assessment of your current site. Simply mention this article when contacting bob@websuccessteam.com or call 818-222-5643 for an appointment. To your web success!
February 16, 2010 at 3:13 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Is Your Brand Being “Heard”?
There’s a new marketing tool in town you should know about. It’s in Beta testing but it is not only free but produces mountains of great marketing information to help you improve your website. It’s called “Heardable.com,” and quite simple it is the easiest and most efficient way to measure how your online brand is perceived, performs and stacks up against your competition.
Just enter your URL in the free tool and you get a Heardable Score in return. The six measurable sub-scores that will help you determine you brand’s success against your competition are:
1) Portable: Is your site optimized for mobile search? The better positioned you brand is to take advantage of mobile, the higher your ranking and site’s effectiveness. Portability is determined by detecting auto redirects for the four top mobile device platforms; iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
2) Shareable: Sharing is a reciprocal exchange, giving and getting. Heardable scans for RSS feeds with the more feeds the more you are likely to share content and thus more engaged in social activity. The more you share, the more you will be picked up and shared as well. Social media is all about engagement.
3) Measurable: Does your website have analytics that track, monitor and optimize site activity, including on-page performance, ecommerce and online advertising? A low score would indicate you need to set up more tracking indicators for your marketing efforts.
4) Actionable: Does your website interact with your visitors and connect with them using visitor focused words? A higher ranking is achieved if your website speaks in personal tones to customers, using ‘you’ or ‘your’ as ways to connect with them. A low ranking focuses more on brand information and corporate policy.
5) Sociable: Word of mouth marketing is becoming a major player in brand image and how consumers react through the power of the purse. Make sure you have a brand blog set up with at least a few employees making regular contributions. Set up social accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and YouTube immediately and participate on a daily basis.
6) Searchable: Ranking in this category depends on search engine visibility, number of inbound links, and local search determinants. Keywords, original content and linkage to your site will improve your site’s performance and searchability.
Facing Down the Competition
Business is all about competing and the goal is gaining market share and customers. Heardable can give you a powerful tool to find the answers about improving your business and achieve web success. It provides you with real time data that you can use to make better marketing decisions, and turn them into an action-based plan backed by indisputable metrics. Your boss wants proof, well show them the stats!
Brand Comparisons
Heardable’s extensive research of category brand leaders mirrors a Heardable Score. This means you can now get the statistical intelligence to help you dramatically improve your site’s performance and take the lead of your chosen category of business. Heardable Category Overviews factor in over one million URLs covering seven critical areas of analysis.
Learn from the Best Brands
The Heardable 100 is a sort of gold standard of online branding. They share with you the best of the best and what makes them tick. Heardable takes the features and functions that these 100 online brand leaders have in common. There are plenty of take-a-way lessons in this batch to give your site that needed marketing boost.
Make Your Website Heard!
In today’s competitive environment, online branding is critical to building your business online. Getting qualified visitors is a marketing imperative. Tools like Heardable are critical in understanding your site’s performance and visibility. The Web Success Team can analyze and optimize your website, increase your Heardable Score to make it ‘Heard’ throughout the Internet. Contact us today for an complimentary analysis of your website and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
Images: from Heardable, Inc.
The Web Success Team specializes in developing and marketing direct response websites that take full advantage of the latest developments on the Internet. The Team has an arsenal of effective web strategies, online marketing tools and proven customized social media techniques to promote your products and services. And we’ll show you ways to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site.
For more tips, tools and articles of interest, become a fan of the WebSuccessTeam Facebook page and learn more about online marketing, SEO and social media. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/WebSuccessTeam. Contact the Team today for a complimentary consultation to your web success!
