The use of Smartphones is on the rise. And – unfortunately – a lot of businesses are paying no attention to this increase.

Recently, a leading research company stated that in 3 to 4 years, mobile users will be greater in number than laptops or computers. While mobile users obviously encompass more than just Smartphones, this outlines the importance of making your site mobile ready.

The reality is, you can’t target Smartphone browsers like regular internet users. Because the screens are smaller than laptops, you have to make your website smaller to accommodate them. If you don’t, the smaller screen will force the mobile users to constantly scroll up or down to view anything.

Most people will not be willing to do this, and will simply click away. Therefore, not having a smaller version of your site can cost you sales.

Should you have two different pages for this? You could do this option, but then you would have to get two separate pages ranking in the search engines. This is almost impossible, so is not really an option.

Another method is to have a clickable link on your main page that goes to your mobile page. But this is going to reduce conversions because a certain percentage of people are not going to click through.

That’s why many experts say the best strategy is to utilize user-agent detection. This is a system that finds out what browser the visitor is using, and adjusts the webpage accordingly.

This means the site will automatically change the dimensions of the webpage based on the browser of the visitor. This is when your ability to target Smartphone users will really take off.

What about your page content?

With any page dimension, have to have quality content. The main thing needed is simplicity. This is how to target mobile users successfully.

Here are three ways to make it more simple:

#1) Have the same navigation on every page

This is important, because if there is different navigation the user will become frustrated and leave.

#2) Put the navigation lower on the page

When it’s at the top, it often forces Smartphone users to have to toggle down to view the page. This is very annoying and a guaranteed way to lower your sales.

#3) Limit the use of graphics

This is another way to improve the simplicity. You probably want to avoid one of those annoying introductory flash pages that pops up before the main page.

So the main way to target Smartphone users successfully is to have different dimensions for your mobile users, and keep your pages simple. This is how to cater to the growing mobile market.

Tags: mobile ready site, site design tips, smartphone friendly