Your website needs to run swiftly and smoothly on smartphones and other mobiles since an increasing number of users are using phones to access websites as well as conduct business deals. You certainly cannot afford to lose out on this opportunity of converting this fledgling market into an important chunk of your business in coming times.
Google too offers you several options of optimizing your website to welcome smartphone users by launching Googlebot Mobile for smartphones during December 2011 and also offers 3 different configurations to optimize your website for both smartphone and computer users.
Google basically recommends maintaining a common HTML for both smartphone and computer users while using different CSS settings to differentiate between the two. However, based on your specific requirements, you can also opt for different HTML coding and CSS over the same URLs or can even opt for different URLs for computer and smartphone visitors.
By keeping common HTML settings and simply changing CSS for incoming visitors, you can impress Google search engine robots since this move will help index your website with greater efficiency. If you do plan to change your HTML coding then you should remember to utilize the Vary HTML header to inform Google bots of your decision for improved rankings on both platforms.
Other vital tips for optimizing content for smartphone users are to reduce and optimize your content to only include keyword-specific information. Smartphone and mobile users might not have the time or the screen space to scroll through high level of text and graphics, and hence reducing clutter and continuous testing of your website on different smartphones is a good idea.
Another tip is to cut down on data entry required by mobile users and instead use drop down menus and check-lists to keep entries to a minimum. You should also stay away from Java and Flash since they will simply slow down loading times or prevent access from certain smartphones. If you have created a lean-and-mean website for smartphone users, but also wish to allow users to access your main website then including links is also a good tip to enable people to gain detailed information from your main website.
These tips should help you to design and create a smartphone optimized website that provides an impressive experience for smartphone and mobile users, and in turn allows you to tap into an emerging market.