by Claudia Bruemmer

It’s smart for B2B merchants to optimize their site for tons of mobile and tablet users, as they will soon outnumber computers and laptops. More and more of your customers can now connect directly from their handheld devices, thanks to new technology. That means your website must visually accommodate all these users. This article tells you how to minimize your site while maximizing your visibility in the SERPs.

Creating a mobile version of your site can give you the advantage of reaching customers who are always wired. Today, nobody sits at a desktop waiting for pages to load; rather, they’re holding mobile devices. That’s why it’s more important than ever to ensure your website is available for the growing mobile audience. It must be well optimized for optimal viewing, searching and connecting. Below is some info you can use.

• Search for mobile specific keywords in Google AdWords to help narrow down exactly what words you need for reaching today’s mobile and tablet consumers.
• Use the same SEO tactics to optimize your mobile site that are used to optimize your website, but use your mobile keywords to create the title tag, description and headers.
• Don’t overwhelm mobile users with content. Keep it short and simple, ensuring that your images are small. This provides the best mobile experience for you customers.
• Use clear fonts that are easy to read, create large action buttons and easy navigation so information can be found.
• Test for small screen viewing.

It’s important to transform your website from computer-friendly to mobile-friendly to reach all the people using mobile and tablets on the go. Most sites have two URLs − one for mobile and one for computers.

Did you know there’s an SEO advantage to having a mobile version of your site? Google now has Googlebot Mobile, a special crawler that looks for mobile versions of classic sites to index. This can be an advantage if you optimize your mobile and classic sites properly because you’ll be twice as searchable on mobile and web. There are several things you can do to make your site mobile-friendly.

• Create visually appealing content for small-screen viewing by using CSS. Reduce image sizes and ensure fonts and content are simple for easy scanning.
• Optimize your content and images by including keywords from Google AdWords mobile search. Don’t use ads on a mobile site – it’s hard enough to read content.
• Ecommerce apps provide a competitive edge that keeps your customer from going to competitor sites.

You can also consider two design options for your mobile site: Google Transcode vs. Mobile Subdomain.

• Google Transcode: If you use Google’s configuration tool to transcode your site from classic HTML to mobile HTML, it doesn’t give your customers the best user experience because images and content can be resized in an unsightly manner, resulting in error pages. Avoid this by creating a mobile subdomain.
• Mobile Subdomain: Create a subdomain specifically for your mobile site. Having separate URLs for mobile and web allows the GoogleBot Mobile to visit and index the mobile version for mobile searches, a key factor for searching and indexing.

Don’t use Flash, Java, Ajax or Frames. You can use XHTML (WAP 2.0), cHTML (iMode) or WML (WAP 1.2).

• Be Sure to Test: Run your site through WSC Mobile to ensure it is mobile-friendly. Test and re-test on multiple browsers and devices.
• Optimize for All Screens: Not everyone has a smartphone since there are still a number of users using classic phones. Make sure your site views properly no matter what screen is used.

The Ubiquity of Tablets. Tablets are quickly replacing laptops and even televisions – they are lighter and easier to pack, making them more attractive for today’s users. Unlike the majority of mobile phones, tablets rely on Wi-Fi and 3G to connect. A tablet-friendly site is fast and looks familiar and simple. Here’s what you can do:

• Provide classic and mobile versions of your site for iPad users. Since iPads don’t use Flash, sites with Flash content can redirect iPad users to their mobile site.
• Ecommerce sites can have an application developed that directly connects their products to mobile and tablet consumers with one tap. Apps can store all your information in one place, making payments easy while providing fast-loading pages.
• Content-heavy sites are good, but it can be time consuming and annoying to scroll down for info. Avoid this by including “Previous” and “Next” buttons to make content navigation easy.

Optimizing for Tablets. Here’s what you can do to make your site tablet friendly: 

• Limit duplicate content by changing CSS so it’s optimized for tablet viewing.
• If you use Flash, redirect to your mobile site from the tablet.
• Create an app for ecommerce pages and information storage to avoid slow loading time.
• Optimize the check-out process for buyers by using cookies, postal codes, and PayPal.
• Make pages touchable by using HTML5 and CSS3 to create scrolling and horizontal navigation with content all on one page.
• Offer downloadable content by creating PDF versions of important site content, allowing users to store content for future reading.
• Test and retest.

Following the above tips will get your mobile site indexed, while giving you instant purchasing and sharing from mobile and tablet customers. Using individually developed apps that remove users from the browser and into your online store will keep your customers’ attention focused on your products, resulting in more conversions.