There are 1 billion PCs in the world. There are 5 billion mobile phones in the world. Many people accessing the internet do so using a mobile phone only and do not use a PC to access the internet.
Smartphones make accessing the internet much easier than a regular cell phone. However, almost 90 percent of all cell phones sold today are able to access the internet. Smartphones are not needed to access the mobile web but they do make the experience richer. Smartphones account for about one quarter of all mobile phones sold today and this percentage is growing.
Another interesting statistic is that approximately 90 percent of all websites are not mobile friendly. In other words, they do not work very well and in some cases are completely useless to a mobile phone user.
Considering all of these statistics one may think that having a mobile version of a website is very important. In many cases it certainly is important. If a business benefits (or desires to) from the online world then in most cases it is very important to have a mobile website.
As with many things, there is more than one way to make a website mobile. There are simple solutions that may work well in some cases and not in others. There are also not so simple solutions that may also not always work well.
Some ways to make a mobile website include…
1. Using an online service that converts your website into a mobile version. This is fast but sometimes expensive.
2. Hiring a website developer to create a brand new version of your website. This can be quite expensive.
3. Using a software plugin that dynamically converts your website to a mobile friendly format. This is fast and cheap but works only with content driven systems such as WordPress. It is also less customizable.
Another consideration is the domain name. A website such as www.mycompany.com can have a mobile version of their website such as m.mycompany.com or mobile.mycompany.com. Using a subdomain such as mobile.mycompany.com does not require any additional registration or fees.
Another option is to use the .mobi top level domain. A website such as www.mycompany.com would have a mobile version of their website names www.mycompany.mobi. Using the .mobi top level domain requires that a new domain name be registered. The annual fee for .mobi domain names is higher than for most other domain names. The fee at Godaddy.com at the time of this writing is about $18/year. However, there are some distinct advantages to the .mobi domain. These include the fact that the .mobi domain is an emerging standard for the mobile internet that is promoted and supported by the industry. The .mobi domain is designed for mobile use and it offers better search engine performance for mobile users. It also avoids the potential problem of duplicate content which search engines can penalize websites for.
For the do-it-yourself crowd creating a mobile version of a website can be done with some technical capability and not too much work, depending on the method used and the desired result. Most businesses will want to hire this task out as there are some tricks and time required to make it work properly.
One thing is for sure. The mobile internet is already huge and is growing rapidly. It is not something to ignore if your business needs to be found online. To find out more about getting a mobile website contact us here at Databae Systems.
