Does the Content Have to Change?

I know in my last blog I said content didn’t have to change for mobile, but it warrants consideration. Ideally you’d only update content in one place and see it magically appear across-the-board, but you might consider the opportunities afforded by the different behaviours of mobile surfers.

For one, they are usually looking for information, as opposed to doing research. They’d appreciate reduced content on the page and quick ways to get around without reading your sales pitch. It doesn’t mean you don’t have it there, you just make it less important than you might on a regular website.

You may also consider simply shortening the text – at least on the landing page. Even if specifically designed for mobile allowing healthy font sizes, it doesn’t take much to generate page after page of content at that size, and it can just seem like way too much.

Create Special Pages, Just for Mobile Users

The other interesting behaviour of mobile surfers is they have less tolerance for blatantly being sold to. They’re trying to quickly look something up. Maybe you don’t change the entire website’s content, but you could create special landing pages for mobile surfers. Think of it as an opportunity to put in special messages for them, or to drive them to something specific.You can lead people directly there with special URLs or QR codes.

I’ve seen mobile sites make their blog posts front and centre, because the nature of the post titles and summaries make for both a simple look and useful, non-salesy content.

If you do create content for a special landing page, stay away from strong selling messages and make it all about them. Share easily navigated, helpful information that makes your company look like a generous genius.

Don’t Create a Mobile Site That is Less Than Your Regular One

What I dislike as a user is being automatically redirected to a mobile site to find it only has bare bones content because it’s mobile. It doesn’t have the information I’m looking for, so I have to click ‘visit regular website’ to find what I need. Perhaps they’ve tried to keep it simple, but it’s not useful and looks like a half-hearted attempt at a mobile presence, like ‘under construction’ pages on websites that never go away. I’d rather squint at a regular site not optimized for mobile than see that. It’s a waste of time. Do it right and all the way, or don’t do it. Platforms like WordPress have modules already built to make it really easy. And for the sites we’ve quoting on lately, mobile only adds about 10% to the budget.