The answer to this question is simple - YES. You can answer it with questions like “Do I want an effective website?” or “Do I want to increase my revenue?”. Mobile sites offer an improved user experience and are in pace with social media as an online initiative that all businesses must conquer. As consumers change, the early adopters and businesses who change with it will prosper. According to Nielsen Net Ratings the mobile surfer is seldom just ‘surfing around’, they have a specific goal with their visit; to find a piece of information, to download a mobile service, or maybe visit their favourite brand.
How do Mobile Sites Work?
Quite simply, when you use your smartphone to visit a site, the web server that site is hosted on knows what is trying to access it and displays different content depending on the visitors browser and operating system.
Benefits of mobile sites:
- Ability to reach a broader (and growing) audience
- Improved search/SEO performance
- Competitive advantage
- More cost-effective & flexible than mobile app development
What to look for in a mobile site:
- No side-scrolling: all the info required and desired should be displayed on the screen, without overlap
- No Flash: Flash is proprietary to the Adobe corporation and isn’t supported by some mobile operating systems
- Fast load time: The typical use won’t wait longer than 2 seconds for a site to load – especially on a mobile phone. Site optimization is a key factor in decreasing load time
- Easy to navigate: Like normal sites, the user should find what they’re looking for in less than three clicks
- Mobile-specific features: These include click-to-call, mapping, and navigation features and offer more engagement and solutions for mobile consumers
Mobile Site Case Study - Sound of Music Festival
Site: http://www.soundofmusic.ca/
Mobile Site: http://m.soundofmusic.ca/
Burlington's Sound of Music Festival is one of Ontario’s most popular festivals. Featuring a unique blend of new and emerging artists, Canadian icons and favourites of the past this unique Festival presents all styles of music appealing to all ages. Past performers include Tom Cochrane, The Stills, David Wilcox, 54-40, and The Trews. Organizers from the Sound of Music Festival approached LinxSmart to design a mobile site to give attendees a better experience at the event. A solution included a mobile site which allows users to find event info easily and fast, to contact staff, volunteer, find vendors, and maps. A unique feature of this site enabled users to know what bands are currently on stage, and what stage they’re playing on. This was made possible by a time-sensitive content display feature. The event turned out to be a huge success and LinxSmart received great reviews for developing their mobile site.
