Here on the TribalVision blog, we recently discussed the importance of mobile optimization for proper website marketing efforts. While high profile, high traffic websites often have the resources to develop and effectively deploy, maintain, and update mobile apps for their users, smaller and mid-sized companies are generally better served by utilizing mobile optimization techniques. These include developing mobile-friendly sites without flash that can be viewed easily on mobile devices, mobile-optimized sites that mobile devices detect and display in lieu of your standard site, or adaptive websites developed through responsive web design (the most labor intensive and costly option).

Where to start?

Whether you’re just starting out and first building a website, if you’re planning a major website revision, or even if your website is functioning and ranking well, site mobilization should be high on your priority list. When starting from scratch, talk to your web development team about your mobilization goals up front. It’s much more cost effective to build mobilization in from the front end than it is to retrofit later. For revisions, there’s much more to consider.

Mobile Detection: The most basic course of action is a small revision to a mobile-friendly site. This method means that your site recognizes mobile browsers as opposed to desktop browsers and delivers the appropriately styled content. The process is called mobile detection, and while it’s simple and generally effective, the major challenge is that there are innumerable new devices and mobile browsers being developed, updated, and used at all times. That leaves a large margin for error. Still, it’s a useful method, and it’s on that many smaller sites use. To take this basic mobile detection approach, look into HTML tagging in HTML5 for safe optimization of simpler sites.

Plugins: Depending on your website, you may be able to optimize your site for mobile use by using plugins for open source Content Management Systems (CMS). Plugins for mobile optimization can typically enable your site to recognize mobile sites and change your site’s formatting to more appropriately display your content on a mobile device. This works well for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Plone sites, and the plugins are often free and available for download through a simple Google search.

CSS: If you’ve built your own site or don’t use a CMS with available plugins, you may be able to edit your CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to make your site more mobile friendly. However, if you’re not knowledgeable about CSS editing, call on an expert. This is slightly more advanced, and it’s not worth the risk of making costly errors if you’re not comfortable working in CSS.

As you go about your mobile optimization project, keep in mind which of your pages attract the most traffic, and which specifically attract the most mobile traffic. Think first about home pages, contact pages, and email-campaign landing pages, but always review your site analytics to back up your instincts. These are the places where you want to start making changes.

Still not sure where to start? We’ve got your mobile project covered. Connect with the TribalVision mobilization experts for a personal consultation.