One of the current issues with mobile web browsers for mobile phones is that not all web pages are designed for viewing on smaller screens. Many new smart phones will provide full HTML capable access, but users may still find they spend too much time zooming in-and-out in order to view and read important information. This is why most popular sites on the Internet now are providing mobile versions of their traditional websites.
In order to view many of these sites, you simply need to know that you can replace the leading "www" with the letter "m" followed by dot and the domain name. The mobile web address then becomes "m.yourdomainname.com". This rule of thumb is quite common for many mobile enabled websites. Another common workarounds is to replace the ".com" after the title with ".mobi". Should you be searching with a mobile device on the mobile web, the process may be a bit more involved, but not necessarily any more confusing.
It appears that all of the major search engines now have mobile versions of their online services to compensate for this. You should note that Google has m.google.com, the newest version of Microsoft's Bing can be reached at m.bing.com, and Yahoo may be accessed on the mobile web at m.yahoo.com.
Another mobile web feature for these sites is that you can configure settings and format pages from your mobile phone to be viewed in a way that you prefer for your device. The current default is that you will normally see page content in a single column with minimal graphics. This also means that you will not have to zoom in out on your mobile screen to read the results once the pages load.
Ideally, and most likely the best scenario is to combine mobile search engine results with SERPs that are specifically designed for mobile devices without the search engines being required to reformat large-scale web pages. Many mobile web search engines and mobile directories are presently designed to provide this automatically. One of the best examples of this is Taptu.com, as it only provide searches for mobile compliant websites. Taptu is also available as a down-loadable stand-alone app for smart devices like the iPhone or the iPad Touch. Also, consider that with the advent of the Google Android phone, mobile web-surfing will only continue to become more mainstream.
Optimizing for the Mobile Web
When it comes to optimizing your web content for Google Mobile and other mobile search engines, there are several things that you need to consider. Much has been written that you should seriously consider developing a mobile version of your traditional website. Another approach often suggested is to take the time to make sure that your existing sites are "mobile-friendly", which simply means that they are easily accessible for mobile browsers.
So, whether you optimize your traditional websites for the mobile web, or you take the time and effort to invest in a new mobile compliant version of your website, there are certain things you can do to better assure that you can rank well for mobile search results. Here are a few reasonable suggestions. One of the easiest approaches is to create a "sub-domain" for your mobile web version, instead of launching a separate domain like a dot mobi site. This results in giving your mobile site a name like "mobile.yourdomainname.com". This will allow you to retain the branding of your current TLD without having to do a lot of extra search engine optimization. This will work just fine if you find your desired dot mobi name is not available to register. You can also accomplish this by creating an extension like "yourdomain.com/mobile", just like you would for a blog.
Other Mobile Search Developments
Searches with a smart phone can be a totally different experience with different results. When you start a mobile search on Google with an iPhone or an Android enabled device, you also will get apps results along with other search results. The app links will take you to pages in the iPhone App Store and the Android Market. This is great for instant app downloads, and the links typically contain star ratings, reviews, pricing, and information about the app maker. This too will cut down on the need for back-and-forth navigation when performing search on the mobile web.
Yahoo mobile web search results should see expanded search results. Yahoo has noticeable alterations as to how it declares search results for local business listings, entertainment, stocks, videos, and images on smart phones.
Technology is becoming more mobile, and there is a definite, but maybe somewhat more subtle shift to mobility. This is similar to the shift from desktop computing to portable computing. Don't be left behind and scratching your head as to what happened, and why you did not see the trend.
Source: Ezine Articles
