What are mobile websites?
Mobile websites are special websites designed to work effectively when viewed from mobile devices like iPhones, Blackberrys etc. The problem with such devices is that the screen size is limited which makes it difficult to browse websites that are designed to work with desktop or laptop devices like PCs and Macs and iPads.
A second issue is that of download speed. Many websites designed to be viewed on desktops contain high resolution images and other files that download slowly unless the bandwidth is high. For many mobile devices bandwidth is a problem and for many people, downloading a lot of data can cost a fair bit of money.
A mobile website is designed specifically to be seen by mobile users and so would typcially contain fewer images that may also be compressed. Standard navigation links like text links can also be difficult to use on a mobile and so mobile sites tend to include larger buttons that can be clicked on more easily. Such sites also usually contain a slimmed down version of the desktop site but allow access to the full site via a simple link. Additionally, you can include “click to call” links in mobile sites that trigger phone connection in a single click.
With mobile search becoming more and more prevalent it makes sense for businesses to develop mobile website if they want to present a user friendly image to mobile searchers. There are a variety of tools available to build mobile sites now and some are extremely cost effective.