Mobile Version of Your Website

What I Learned From The MO-lympics

Thursday, February 25, 2010 by Annette Tonti

The best is yet to come for mobile. This year’s winter Olympics have highlighted some of the most important aspects of why mobile media is different.

As someone who may be building or managing sites for mobile devices, you will want to learn the latest techniques for engaging your mobile web audience.

Key points here are mobile combined with real time and social

While the real estate is small; the compact nature of the mobile machine makes it easy to keep in our pocket all day. The cousin to our wallets, mobile is truly the really personal computer that no one leaves home without!

Mobile is now our extended personal broadcasting device and the best way to receive real time information about anything, anywhere. Nowhere has this been more apparent but then during this year’s winter Olympics.

The Games Gone Mobile

This is the first winter games where virtually every athlete has a twitter account and people are accessing those feeds very often on their mobile phones. For sure athletes and reporters alike, are posting to Twitter and Facebook in real time.

Google modified search just to make sure if you are on mobile, you will get results in real time. All you need to do is enter your favorite sport into the search bar and back will come the latest results on your mobile device

People are searching for everything and anything related to the winter games – on their mobile devices. Searches on Yahoo mobile for "ice skating rinks" were up 607 percent last week – especially among teens. Searches for “red Olympic mittens,” were up 182 percent last week. As you might guess, Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White are hot topics. Her searches were up 1,446 percent this week and mobile searches for “Shaun White snowboarding” were up 1,921 percent.

According to Web analytics firm Omniture, the mobile version of NBC's Winter Olympics Web site has reached a 58.2 million page views, a growth of over two-thirds compared to the same statistic for 2008's Beijing games. Before the opening ceremony even began on February 12, more than one million hits had already been recorded. That one-day total alone eclipsed the number of mobile Web site views during the entire 2006 games.

Another interesting statistic is the growth in mobile video. More than 1.4 million Olympic videos have been streamed from NBC's mobile site. That's a 400%+ growth over the 2008 games NBC's mobile Olympics site, mobile.nbcolympics.com, provides a simple and instant view at the live medal counts and all the latest news headlines.

MoFuse joined Olympics coverage by hosting the Vancouver Observer site m.vancouverobserver.com. We are excited to be a small part of such an important global event.

Take aways: make your website mobile, add real time feeds from social platforms such as twitter to keep people up to date. If you are hosting an event, make sure you engage 'reporters' to your event by supplying mobile web tools to keep audiences up to date and engaged.

Mobile Advertising 101

Friday, October 16, 2009 by Annette Tonti

The mobile version of your website is an additional source of revenue for your company!

It's early in the mobile ad game, but not too early to be testing out how to make a return on your mobile media.

When you have a mobile site and it is a good experience, you will build a mobile audience and get people to repeat visit.   You can make money on those eyeballs just like the desktop web. A mobile phone website will help you to build a viable audience with a strong demographic base in a new channel.   Mobile web traffic will deliver both new customers who are looking for your site ‘on the go’ (maybe using a search engine) as well as mobile viewers who enter your desktop URL (autodetection will send them to the mobile site).

Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media.

What is Mobile Advertising?

It is similar to online advertising but the reach potential is far greater. Start with the opportunity to reach 4 billion people (compare to 1 billion on your desktop computer).

How can you get a ROI for mobile advertising or marketing when using the MoFuse platform?

Here are the most direct ways today to get started:

1.    Sell a sponsorship to a local advertiser in your area or a company partner- for a flat fee that would have a specific duration. For example, perhaps you get a partner to sponsor all of your mobile views for 6 months for a fee of $3000.00. You will be surprised to find how many of your partners will want to advertise on mobile - if you can deliver the valuable mobile eyeballs!

2.    Use one of the standard mobile ad networks to put ads on your site. You can easily do this through the MoFuse interface “Monetize” button. You can also use MoFuse Ad Network where we optimize about 6 mobile networks to provide the best ad for your site.

Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media.

The forms of mobile advertising have been emerging for a number of years and are as follows:

Mobile banner ads – small graphical ads that are very similar in nature to desktop website banner ads. They present a call to action (albeit smaller), placed top or bottom of the mobile web page. When clicked, they take you to a mobile landing page (easily built on the MoFuse platform by the way).

Text links – similar to banner ads, except they are a text call to action link, when clicked take you to a landing page.

SMS - Text messaging – more like email marketing than advertising - this is where you get to use the texting ability available on 100% of mobile phones worldwide. That is some reach potential! Like email, a person must opt-in to receive messages from you.   They will give you their mobile phone number and select perhaps some message category that you will send them (ie, sports scores, weather alerts, coupons or specials).   You may send short text messages to them of 160 characters. Virtually every mobile phone in the world supports SMS so it is ubiquitous in its reach.

MMS - multimedia messaging – is just like SMS but you get to send very fancy messages!   MMS is a rich messaging capability that allows for sending messages that include video, audio, photos and text. MMS is not yet universally supported throughout the world via carriers. But it is something you should know about and watch as it becomes more
prevalent throughout the coming years. MMS is a significant advertising opportunity in the future!

Mobile TV advertising – OK just like TV advertising but done on the tiny screen. The mobile ad will be a still or video ad place before, during or after a streaming mobile video.

Mobile applications – You can actually display ads inside of mobile apps. Generally these are banners or ‘interstitials’ that show up between app actions.

For a comprehensive view of mobile advertising guidelines you will want to check out the Mobile Marketing Association's (MMA) guide

Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media!

Will Web Analytics Work On Our Mobile Site?

Monday, August 31, 2009 by Annette Tonti

VS.

It is far and away the most asked question from MoFuse customers:

Can we place our web site analytics tag on our mobile website hosted by MoFuse?

Mobile web analytics are on everyone's mind. Once your mobile site is up and running, of course you want to know what your mobile web audience is doing and how you can improve their experience.

However analytics for a desktop web site are fundamentally different than mobile web analytics in a few important ways:

•    The execution of the measurement on the mobile site - is different
•    The types of data that you can capture – are different
•    Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you will want to consider – are different

The Execution

There are 1000’s of different devices accessing your mobile site and most of them cannot handle cookie or tag technology which are standards for desktop site analytics to work. Desktop website analytics refers to the measurement of visitors and their activities during the course of their visit to your site. The most popular website analytics are performed today using page tags or log file analysis to track users. Page tagging collects information via a code snippet or “tag” placed on your website which records and sends data to a third party for reporting and analysis.

The problem: tags for desktop sites are generally JavaScript which simply won’t do the job for the mobile web. JavaScript cannot be handled by most handsets or mobile browser technology. Therefore, merely using the same tags that you use to measure desktop site just won’t work. Worse, if you try to use them you will get results that will give you false or incomplete information!

Other standard methods for desktop site analytics such as HTTP Cookies, HTTP referrer and IP address information are also not supported by the majority of mobile browsers. Even if they are, the data returned would be misleading due to the location of the Carrier’s IP gateway.

Collecting analytical data from your mobile site simply isn’t as straightforward as it is on your desktop site. Using some traditional tools, like Google Analytics will appear to work at one level, however it will also give you misleading information because it is only representing a small subset of your mobile visitors.

A Different Approach for Mobile Analytics

When you make a mobile version of your website you will want to consider image tags or beacons, link redirection and HTTP header analysis instead of JavaScript tags for analytics of your mobile site. MoFuse Premium provides all the data you need to get a proper picture of your mobile web traffic.

The Types of Data are Different for Mobile

In addition to data elements you collect from a desktop site, you can also collect data such as device type, carrier, geographic location, language and unique visitor identification. MoFuse collects these for you and if you are a Premium user you will get these in your analytics information.   Next we'll talk about Key Performance Indicators that you will want to consider for your mobile site. How can you measure the success of the mobile site vs. your desktop site? It all has to do with the goals you have for each site.

Yes That Is You They Are Looking For: Mobile Search

Thursday, August 13, 2009 by Annette Tonti

A lot of people think that the mobile web is just a “mini” version of the desktop web. That iPhone made it possible to simply miniaturize your desktop site so it works just the same on a mobile device.

That’s just not the case today nor will it be the case in the future. You need to have a mobile friendly site, one that is designed with the mobile web readers front and center.

Why?

The first reason is real estate- that's a no brainer. Smaller screen, you need to be more effective at getting the essential messages out there.

Second is – well – how will the mobile web audience find you? Search of course!
You've probably already been to Google and other search engines on the mobile web.
When you put a term in that search engine on a mobile device, do you think they use the same search algorithms and rankings as on the desktop web?

No, actually they use very different rankings when they know that a search is being done from a mobile device!

About a year ago Google was awarded a patent for mobile search. Their mobile search patent explains that…

"The mobile search result quality scores and the generic search result quality scores were generated according to different scoring formulas. Based on one or more terms in the search query, the search query is classified as a mobile query. As a consequence, one or more search result quality scores are modified to improve the sorting of search results that include both mobile and generic search results." You can read up more on this patent here at SEO Principle.com.

In March of this year Google announced that their mobile traffic had quintupled since 2007. It’s no secret that iPhone also has helped mobile search grow exponentially. It got more people interested in using the mobile web - and when we went there, we hurried right to our old habits: Search.

And the types of searches we do on mobile are different. According to Google Mobile ad sales director Diana Pouliot, Local search on the mobile device indexes higher than the desktop by about two to three times. So what does that mean? It means as people are getting very comfortable using the mobile internet – they are doing what you might expect- searching for things, companies, entertainment, restaurant and more.

No surprise, Google dominates mobile search but there are a lot of mobile search engines out there.

So will a mobile search engine really be different?

Yes.

First it will recognize the searcher is mobile and therefore the ranking algorithm will be different. It is looking for a mobile version of your website. Also Mobile search engines will offer relevant information based on location (and that is one reason why local mobile search will be important).

So once again you need a mobile web site built for the mobile web. If you use a provider like MoFuse we enable your mobile site to automatically be entered into all of the mobile search engines. You will be ready for SEO the minute you use our mobile web tools.

You need to add a mobile sitemap. Search engines such as Google discover information about your site by employing software known as "spiders" to crawl the web. Once the spiders find a site, they follow links within the site to gather information about all the pages. The spiders periodically revisit sites to find new or changed content. Google Mobile Web Search crawls and indexes sites that have been specifically designed for mobile phones and devices. By using Mobile Sitemaps to inform and direct their crawlers, they continuously expand their coverage of the mobile web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to their mobile indexes.

The first step is realizing people will be searching for you on the mobile web - but most important you need to be ready with a mobile web enabled site- set up for Search!

Take The Test...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by Annette Tonti

We get asked all of the time: Do I really need a mobile site? Or won’t the mobile phone browser just show my desktop website? Do I really need to develop a Mobile Website? (see answers below)

The best way to understand what happens when someone accesses the desktop version of your website on a mobile phone is to try it. Also try it on several different devices. You will quickly see that your desktop site probably looks unusable on every phone. The exception may be the iPhone, but consider people do not like to point, pinch and squeeze their way to your information!

Here is an example of a website for the Common Angels and what it looks like on a Blackberry. The left is their desktop URL typed into the mobile browser, the right is a MoFuse built site.

No Mobile site MoFuse Site

Try this yourself, input their desktop based URL www.commonangels.com. On the right we built a site on the MoFuse for Business platform, a very simple site that took us less than 20 minutes. The MoFuse site is very basic but we made the website mobile friendly. Look at http://commonangels.bxs.mobi on your cellphone, it will help you to understand what we mean.

There will be no magic bullets to automate sites for mobile devices. You simply cannot automatically push (or 'scrape') the information from your desktop website to create a mobile friendly version, without some human design. Sites for mobile devices take rethinking, they also require mobile web tools that help manage your mobile website for all devices.

Answers from above:

No
A mobile handset browser will never perform magic with your desktop site. It cannot figure out what to place on that tiny screen with priority. Therefore I’m afraid you will need to build a mobile website. To create a mobile website it will take some rethinking of your mobile audience and what they need. The message and design should to follow the form… therefore consider what it will take to make your website mobile.

Yes
You need a mobile website. Juniper predicts 1.7 Billion people will be accessing the web with a mobile device by 2013. You need to be there so they can find you! The time is now to create your mobile customers to your brand.

Mobile App or Mobile Website? (Hint: You Need One Of These For Sure!)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Annette Tonti

If you believe that mobile is a strong medium to reach your customers – you need to be thinking about how your brand will evolve on the mobile web. Today you have a few interesting options and they are not mutually exclusive.

As consumers wake up to the idea that they can actually reach the internet on their phone, we are about to see an explosion of new mobile devices; ITouch, Kindle, “netbooks” and even Sony Playstation Portable already are rapidly changing the ‘connection’ landscape.

What is a marketer to do?

First and foremost, every marketing executive should do a quick experiment and look at how their current “desktop” website looks on various mobile devices. Not great? We thought so. Though iPhone may deliver a version of your current desktop site – it is likely not an optimal experience either (too much pinch & zoom is not good) and certainly won’t cover most of the mobile internet user base.

Next question: Do you really need a separate mobile site?

Yes you need a mobile site… Why? One of the fastest growing activities people are doing on the mobile web today is search. The growth of mobile search is soaring! Further Google’s mobile traffic has quintupled since 2007 that growth will continue as smart phone penetration rises around the globe! They are looking for you and it will be important to be there with a great mobile site experience for your mobile viewers.

The good news is that it is easy to make your website mobile friendly. There are a few ways to do this, some require custom work others leverage mobile web tools. At MoFuse we aim to help speed your way to a mobile site. We also take the pain out of managing and editing that site over time. Check us out at: www.mofusepremium.com .

Well then, what about Apps?

The iPhone changed the game for the downloadable application or “App”. Apple got the storefront right and helped to ignite the mobile app as a standard in the mobile ecosystem. Today over 1 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple iPhone app store alone! Everyone else has followed- so consumers can also buy downloadable apps from carriers like Verizon or newer storefronts just for phones such as Google’s Android or Nokia’s new Ovi. Apps are cool, often fun, and useful - those are the key elements you will want to architect into your app if you go that way. Today about 25 million people tap into apps, Cnet reports that the number of users who will tap into the App store will be at 100 million by 2013!

While having a mobile site is ‘table stakes’, deciding to go with an app requires another level of consideration. The growing number of mobile app options is staggering. Today Apple offers over 40,000 apps in their store. Nokia is about to release their app store, Ovi with over 20,000 apps. The Android store is built to grow apps even more quickly as they offer an ‘open’ environment for programmers. Don’t forget the Blackberry app store… Wheeew! So the first question is where do you fit in? Should you build an app for each individual device (store)? Just for iPhone or Blackberry?

Second consider how will people find your app? Finding a brand’s mobile app will continue to be a challenge as apps multiply quickly. Standing out in the app crowd is a key issue for marketers.

Third, what should your app do? You’ll want to consider how to get the most brand engagement as the data shows that apps with practical use work best at long term, continued usage.

That said – is an app right for every brand? The answer is no- not every brand or storefront needs an app. Today they are the “new” thing but longer term the mobile ecosystem will evolve.

We believe the pattern of usage of the mobile web today makes it imperative to have a user-friendly mobile site that works on every phone (like you can build at MoFuse). Depending on your business objectives you should consider apps carefully and of course SMS messaging.

Check out mobile web tools that can help you get a new mobile site in a hurry.

Is A Mobile Site Really Necessary?

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Annette Tonti

Today there are over 5000 mobile devices that can display some version of a web page. That number is getting bigger fast! As more phones become “smart” and more computing devices become… well smaller, you need to have a strategy around having a high quality mobile presence that works everywhere.

Your customers are mobile, be there for them. It's time to create a mobile website.

A recent report showed that mobile web traffic more than doubled between January 2008 and 2009. Mobile web traffic is going to continue to rise, quickly. Sites like ESPN have already had days where their mobile site gets more traffic than their desktop site!

Whether in the US, Asia or Europe your customers are likely carrying more than one hand held mobile device. Legacy PC companies are all moving mobile, and about to put new portable “netbook” devices on the streets. At the end of March 2009 Michael Dell, CEO of Dell said “For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks,” said Dell. “We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.”

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If you want to make your website mobile friendly there are a few ways to get there: an expensive custom built site or you can go to a provider like MoFuse who will help you by offering mobile platforms for building business sites and blog sites.

What is MoFuse?

MoFuse is the fastest growing network of build-it-yourself mobile sites in the world. Short for Mobile Fusion, MoFuse provides a platform that enables businesses, bloggers and any other web publisher to provide a compelling mobile experience on any mobile device.