There are many reasons to create a mobile website and the biggest one may be because of how many people use smartphones to access the Internet, especially when they are away from their homes or offices. Many people even use their smartphones as their most-used Internet device when they are at home or at work, so designing your mobile website with smartphones in mind is a great idea. It is particularly useful if you have a business website, as many people may use their phones to look for businesses while they are out an about.
Think About What Viewers Will See
With a regular website, viewers have a much bigger screen on a desktop or laptop computer and can see much more content at once while they visit your homepage. This is not the case with mobile websites. Most smartphones have very small screens, and even the newer smartphones with large screens for phones have screens that are very limited in comparison to computer screens. This means that you need to make the most pertinent information the thing that viewers see first. For a business, this means making your business’s description, hours, and location a prime focus of your homepage. When people access your website on their smartphones, you want them to immediately know what kind of services or products you offer and how they can access those products or services. For a retail website, make sure that any special deals or sales can be seen immediately on your mobile website.
Designing Your Mobile Site
If creating these special design features for smartphone viewing seems like a daunting task, enlist the help of a mobile template that will do the bulk of the design work for you. There are templates available online that are specifically made to help you create a great mobile website. If you already have a regular website, you can even import content from your original page onto a mobile version, which eliminates a lot of time and work. To make sure that your design works well on a smartphone, preview the site frequently as you create it. The template will likely be customizable, meaning that you can choose which items go on the homepage and which items are saved for other tabs and separate pages. Each time you preview your site, try to edit so that the design is streamlined and efficient, but make sure to include any significant images like a company logo.
To make the most of a mobile website that people will view on their smartphones, make sure to test the site on an actual smartphone. If you have access to other people’s smartphones that are different from yours, ask them to test the site, too. The more previews you can see of the site, the better idea you will have of how it looks on a smartphone and what changes you need to make to the template before launching your site. Once you have a great looking mobile website, your potential customers or clients will be able to visit your website easily from any smartphone.