Rules for wireless Web: Keep it simple

DENVER-Companies looking to draw traffic to their mobile Web sites should follow two simple rules: Be careful, and be patient.
That was the advice from speakers at last week’s Search Marketing Expo in Denver, where executives from longtime mobile players such as Yahoo Inc. and 4INFO Inc. gathered to offer step-by-step instructions to businesses looking to have a presence in wireless. Wireless Web sites should be easy to find through search engine optimization, they said, and must deliver a positive user experience.
Otherwise, businesses risk losing a mobile customer for a long time. And possibly building a speed bump for an industry that is still very much in first gear.
“Because there’s such a limited amount of traffic right now, traffic becomes more important. So a good experience is key for SEO (search engine optimization),” said Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works Inc., a Denver-based online consultant firm. “The mobile industry is an industry in its infancy. What that means to you is that you must be patient.”
Relevant content must be presented to a user quickly, Krum stressed, allowing users to access what they’re looking for without drilling down through several layers or scrolling to the bottom of the screen. Developers may want to use external style sheets, effectively creating two versions of a page-one for mobile, one for PCs-under a single URL.
Such a move eliminates the need to build two distinct Web sites. But more importantly, it gives the publisher more control over how the site will appear on a mobile screen. Developers can include a snippet of code on the page that tells companies such as Google Inc. and Greenlight Wireless not to transcode the content, allowing the publisher to present a mobile-friendly page that hasn’t been “mobilized” by a third party.
And pages should be coded in XHTML, she claimed, minimizing the increasingly fragmented market of wireless devices, networks and handsets.
“We know that traditional browsers are forgiving, but mobile browsers are not,” Krum said. “You can’t always predict how your site is going to work on a device.”
Like any conference, SMX Denver offered its share of hype. Some speakers doubled as evangelists, touting projected uptake of the mobile Web and the advertising revenues that may follow.
“There’s a very large possibility-and I expect this to be the case-that mobile advertising will be bigger than PC advertising,” said Lee Ott, director of the mobile web for Yahoo. “And the future is not very far away.”
But others were quick to illustrate how small a universe the wireless Internet is today. Few users are accessing the Internet on their handsets, of course, and only a small percentage of those are strolling off carrier decks and typing in URLs to get where they want to go.
And just as executives should temper their expectations for traffic, they shouldn’t try to duplicate a traditional Internet experience on the phone. Developers must forgo sexy bells and whistles such as Flash-enabled graphics and pop-ups that may play well on a PC but can make for a disastrous experience on a handheld.
“There’s a golden rule for mobile Web design, and I think it’s that less is more,” said Rachel Pasqua, director of mobile marketing at iCrossing Inc., an Arizona-based outfit with a handful of offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Keep your file size small, ideally under 20k. I can’t tell you how many mobile sites I’ve seen that are trying to rely on images,” she said, shaking her head. “You have to have copy and keep it simple.”