As more people use phones and tablets to browse the internet, interest in having mobile-friendly sites has exploded. With good reason too! According to our friends at Mashable, one half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices and by 2014, mobile internet usage will be greater than desktop usage.Unfortunately, there's been a dramatic increase in ugly, useless mobile sites too.

How not to do mobile

Before we dig into our preferred strategies for mobile websites, let's look at some mobile approaches and why we do not recommend these.

m.website.com or mobi.website.com

If you regularly use a mobile device to browse the internet, you've probably found yourself on sites like €m.bbc.co.uk€. It's not that you tried to go to m.bbc.co.uk, you were just redirected there when you tried to go to bbc.co.uk from your phone.

Here's why we don't like this practice:

It bizarrely and unnecessarily fragments the site into two sub-sites. Using other techniques, it's possible to dish out mobile styles and content without changing the URL. It violates the €device independent€ nature of the Web to the extent that it has been publicly lambasted by Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the World Wide Web).

It increases visitor confusion when it comes to interacting with the content, such as posting comments or sharing. €If I post comments on the mobile version, will they show up on the regular version as well?€ €If I email a link for this article to a friend, and he's on his laptop, will he still see the mobile site?€ €Does this article even exist on the desktop version?€ These are things that a visitor should never have to wonder about.

Dumb down the site for mobile visitors

Mobile sites don't have to be stripped down versions of a homepage. Gone are the days when just having a logo and giant navigation buttons are considered optimal for a smartphone.

That kind of design loses the motivating power of a good website. Branded language and compelling visuals are made for a reason and go a long way to promote engagement. Visitors accessing a website from a mobile device still want an appealing, engaging experience.

Finally, €streamlined€ mobile websites make assumptions about what mobile users are looking for on the site. Sometimes these guesses are correct, but they aren't always. People commonly assume that mobile users are on the go and most likely looking for directions and contact information, but even this isn't a safe assumption considering 60% of mobile traffic happens when users are at home.

Contact BE Website Design for your Mobile Friendly Website

Making a good mobile-friendly website is all about detecting the limitations and features of a user's device, then adapting the website to work around limitations and leverage capabilities. Implementing the capability to detect browser size within our sites is one aspect that BE Website Design overcomes the issues outlined above. If you want to discuss re-designing your website for mobile devices get in touch with us and we'll make sure your business isn't left behind.