Landing pages are king when it comes to snagging new customers, and most web developers have it down to an art. But here’s a curveball: what if users are visiting your website from a smart phone or mobile device? The entire experience has changed and there are new rules for mobile landing page optimization. Whether you’re running a mobile advertising campaign or you’ve simply noticed that many of your users are visiting from their iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone, then you’ll have much to gain by following some of these basic tips for mobile landing pages:
- Don’t Use Flash This one barely needs explanation. Most phones don’t support Flash and those that do likely don’t integrate it as seamlessly as a desktop browser might. Skip it to avoid a big ugly box with a question mark in it.
- Keep it Simple Nix unnecessary images and overly bulky navigation bars. Keep the design clean and simple and most of all, high contrast. If it’s sunny out or the user has a less than state-of-the-art screen, using contrasting colors with readable fonts will make your page much easier to look at.
- Use Lists and Rich Formatting If web users are notorious for skimming on desktops, it’s even more true on smart phones. Your audience is usually riding the subway, on line at the bank or sneaking a peek during a meeting. Give them the straight facts in easy-to-read lists. Bold important terms and don’t bombard them with irrelevant links.
- Optimize Load Times Keep it light and quick, with the essential information loading first. Phones on iffy networks have a tendency to partially render pages, and if your page looks like a disaster with only part of it loaded, then you’ll frustrate your reader. Make sure the meat of your page pops up on the page lickety split—and if you do have images and other graphics, make sure their absence or tardiness doesn’t hinder the user experience.
- Take Advantage of Click to Call Most smartphones have a handy "click to call” feature that automatically converts phone numbers into speed dial links. So make sure that you include your phone number and format it in such a way that it’ll get picked up by this feature.
- Avoid Pinching, Scrolling and Zooming Phones can zoom in and out and scroll up, down, left and right, but it’s much easier on everyone if they don’t have to—especially if the user only has one finger at their disposal. Make sure your page loads neatly into a small width and doesn’t require any zooming and very little scrolling.
- Offer a Mobile and Standard Version Mobile versions are nice, sometimes, but occasionally, smartphone users will want the real thing. This is especially if they have a phone that renders full HTML, such as the BlackBerry Storm or iPhone. Offer both versions via an unobtrusive link and don’t lock your users into one or the other display.
Keep these tips in mind when crafting your mobile landing pages. And, as always, test them out on a variety of phones. Try th em at home and at the office. Try them on the subway and on the highway. In essence, do the "Can you hear me now?” test on as many phones in as many places you can—except with your mobile landing page.
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