Continuing the conversation from yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget, let's present another simple idea you should consider while building your mobile website.
You're going to have to make a choice between allowing your mobile visitors to see your PC website initially, or automatically redirecting them to the mobile version of your website.
Our opinion is to allow the users to visit whatever website they typed into their browser, and not automatically redirect. So, if they type in http://m.jewelrystore.com you should show them your mobile website, but if they type in http://www.jewelrystore.com then you should show them your normal website.
When visiting the normal website, you need to give them an easy-to-locate link that allows them to jump to the mobile site. Likewise, from the mobile site you need to give them a clear link back to the normal site.
Let's consider two examples:
Google.com
When visiting google.com from your mobile device you are automatically redirected to the mobile version of the site. At the bottom of the screen you will see the option for "View Google in: Mobile | Classic." All of the Google properties will redirect to the mobile version of the same page/site. If you select the Classic site you will see the normal site, although it might not function 100%.
Facebook.com
When visiting facebook.com from your mobile device you are also automatically redirected to the http://m.facebook.com mobile version of the site. At the bottom of the screen you will see the option for "Full Site." If you click Full Site you will then be sent back to the PC site, but Facebook keeps sending you back to the mobile site after every few taps of your mobile device. It's a little annoying.
As you design your own mobile site for your jewelry store you need to make sure of the following points:
1. Don't automatically redirect; give the user the power to select on their own.
2. If the user selects the full site, let them stay on the full site and deal with the consequences of scripting errors, if any.
3. If the user selects the mobile site, let them stay on the mobile site.
4. If the user selects the mobile site, you need to make absolutely sure that the page you send them to matches the same, or somewhat similar, content to the full site page they were just on.
5. Make your mobile website legitimately usable; don't just create a mobile website as a gimmick. That won't work anymore.
Let's review #4, that one was really important. When someone is redirected from the full site to the mobile site, please make sure that the content on the corresponding mobile/full site matches as closely as possible; if you don't, you will simply just annoy your customers.
Hopefully this helps in your strategizing for a mobile website. If you have specific mobile website questions, please let us know.
